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Manchester United were willing to shift eight first-team players to finance a move for Elliot Anderson. The £116million midfielder left Nottingham Forest for Manchester City in the summer instead, and he lines up against his old suitors in the Manchester Derby on Sunday.
Michael Carrick’s midfield underwent a transformation this summer. The arrivals of Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans for a combined £85m brought experience and promise, and in August, long-term target Carlos Baleba arrived in a deal that could reach £70m.
Baleba wasn’t the only expensive midfielder on United’s radar. Anderson, fresh off a breakout Premier League campaign at Nottingham Forest and a strong World Cup with England, carried a price tag above £100m. United held genuine interest in the deal.
Reports suggested Jim Ratcliffe and his team were prepared to offload as many as eight first-team players to fund the move. Manchester City flexed their financial muscle and secured him for £116m instead. United now face the awkward sight of Anderson lining up against them at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The Eight Players on the Chopping Block
In April, reports indicated Manchester United were willing to go all-in for Anderson, ready to sanction exits for eight players to get the deal done. Rasmus Hojlund, Manuel Ugarte, Joshua Zirkzee, Andre Onana and Marcus Rashford were all named as potential departures. Only one of these five has actually left permanently.
Hojlund, signed from Atalanta for £64m, spent last season on loan at Napoli, who made the move permanent this summer by activating a £38m buy option.
Onana followed a similar path, shipped out on loan for the 2025/26 campaign. He joined Trabzonspor, who paid a modest £1.3m loan fee to take the goalkeeper to Turkey for the season.
None of the remaining three have departed. Ugarte was widely tipped for a sale, but a serious knee injury suffered at the World Cup while playing for Uruguay derailed those plans. Zirkzee also pushed for an exit, with Italian sides Juventus and Roma reportedly circling. Deadline-day links to Everton surfaced too, but no transfer materialised.
Rashford’s situation played out differently. Barcelona, where he spent last season on loan, chose not to trigger his £26m purchase option, and no other suitor emerged. He now wears the No. 9 shirt at Old Trafford, restored to Carrick’s first-team plans.
Three more names rounded out the list of eight: players whose contracts were winding down. Removing their wages from the books would, in theory, have helped fund an Anderson deal. Casemiro confirmed his exit in January and let his contract run out before joining MLS side Inter Miami. Tyrell Malacia and Jadon Sancho left as free agents once their own deals expired.
United Walked Away, City Got Their Man
Of the eight players earmarked for exit, United sold one, loaned out another, let three walk for free, and kept three on the books. Combined, these departures generated less than £40m in transfer fees, well short of what was needed to compete for Anderson’s signature.
In the end, though Anderson topped their wishlist, United never actually submitted a bid. Once City’s initial £106m offer climbed past the £100m mark, United withdrew, a decision that made sense given the limited funds actually raised from the eight players involved.
Not even a golf-course meeting with Ryan Giggs could sway things. City sealed the transfer for £116m in July, and Anderson has looked composed in central midfield across his five appearances so far this season.
His sixth outing arrives at Old Trafford, the historic home of United, as he faces the rivals who wanted him most last summer, yet could never close the deal.
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