Elliot Anderson was one of the main headliners of Newcastle United’s summer 2024 transfer window.
The club fell into a PSR mess and by June 2024 it had to raise more than £50 million in extra revenue that month before the end of the financial year.
Players who have come through the ranks without a transfer fee paid are unfortunately the ones who provide the biggest immediate PSR boost. Elliot Anderson was sold to Nottingham Forest for £35 million.
Yankuba Minteh was also sold to Brighton for a reported £33 million, having signed for around £7 million a year earlier.
These two deals immediately generated enough profit to feed into the 2023/24 accounts to keep Newcastle United on the right side of the PSR.
Elliot Anderson has taken full advantage of the move, starting 33 Premier League games for Forest last season and coming off the bench in another four. Forest returned to Europe and the former Newcastle player also helped his new club reach Wembley and an FA Cup semi-final, which they lost to Man City.
Nottingham Forest have not started well, but Elliot Anderson has arguably continued to go from strength to strength with his individual form. He started all seven Premier League games and two Europa League games this season.
To top it all off, Anderson’s form landed him in the England team, with many now considering him unquestionable for the national side.
I have seen many Newcastle United fans calling this a disaster for the club and losing Elliot Anderson.
The truth is a little more complicated.
Of course, in an ideal world, a homegrown talent like Elliot Anderson would still be at St James’ Park.
However, at the same time I think that many Newcastle United fans, who are going way too far on social media and the like about this, have not been completely honest.
Two things
If he hadn’t been sold, Elliot Anderson still wouldn’t be in this Newcastle United team.
He played just 13 Premier League games for Newcastle United and how many more would he have had last season?
Bruno Guimaraes started all 38 Premier League matches, Joelinton started all 29 PL matches for which he was available. Once Sandro Tonali came into his own, he was the first choice in the Premier League week after week.
Newcastle United’s midfield is the same this season, Eddie Howe wants that same trio on the pitch wherever possible in the Premier League.
If Elliot Anderson had stayed, would anything have changed for him?
He turns 23 next month and would have remained a starter for NUFC.
That doesn’t mean he isn’t a good player, but he is one with three midfielders in front of him.
The other thing is…
If he hadn’t gone to Forest and gotten regular football and the chance to show what he could do, there wouldn’t have been an England call-up if he had stayed at Newcastle United.
It’s always the same for young emerging players at top clubs, who get plenty of playing opportunities.
The biggest tragedy of the whole is that Newcastle United’s owners and senior staff had allowed such a mess to develop with PSR that they were in no position to insist on a bargain buy-back clause for Elliot Anderson when they sold him to Forest.
Good luck to the lifelong Newcastle United fan who now heads to next summer’s World Cup final.
Maybe we’ll see him in a Newcastle shirt again one day…
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