Nottingham Forest's Challenge: Keeping Anderson and Murillo
At Nottingham Forest, the hardest battle might not be staying in the Premier League. It might be keeping hold of the players who made it possible.
Elliot Anderson and Murillo sit at the heart of that tension. One an England international in waiting, the other a Brazilian centre-half who looks built for the modern game. Both are attracting admiring glances from English football’s most powerful addresses. Both are tied to a club whose owner has no intention of being bullied out of his best assets.
Anderson, the £100m midfielder who does it all
Interest has stirred at the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford, but prising Anderson out of the City Ground will take more than a polite enquiry and a glossy presentation. Evangelos Marinakis has a reputation across Europe: he doesn’t blink. He doesn’t sell unless Nottingham Forest stand to gain, significantly and visibly.
Any deal for Anderson would be exactly that – a landmark sale, not a reluctant cash-in. Talk around the game has already attached a nine-figure price tag to his name. Manchester City and Manchester United would need to find in excess of £100 million if they want to test Forest’s resolve for a midfielder expected to light up this summer’s World Cup under Thomas Tuchel with England.
If he shines on North American soil, that valuation may start to look like a floor, not a ceiling.
Jack Colback, who knows the City Ground and its demands as well as anyone, has seen enough to understand why the numbers are climbing. Speaking about Anderson’s profile, he cut straight to the core of the player’s appeal: an old-fashioned midfielder in a modern, hyper-specialised world.
The game now is carved into roles and numbers. No.6. No.8. No.10. Anderson ignores the labels. He presses and tackles. He dictates and creates. He breaks up play, then drives forward to join it. Forest see a midfielder who covers every blade of grass and every phase of play. Colback sees someone who, at full tilt, could grow into one of the very best in his position.
For Forest, that presents both an opportunity and a problem. Sell at the right time and the collective coffers on Trentside receive a transformative injection, money that can be recycled into the squad and the infrastructure. Hold on, and they keep a player around whom an entire side can be built.
Either way, his World Cup performances will not go unnoticed.
Murillo, the defender who reads danger before it arrives
Anderson is not alone in drawing attention. Morgan Gibbs-White has already established himself as Forest’s creative heartbeat, a talisman in the No.10 shirt. Just behind him, Murillo has been quietly building his own reputation as one of the most intriguing young defenders in the league.
Colback was in the building when the Brazilian arrived. What struck him then still holds now. In the flesh, Murillo can give the impression that there’s a mistake lurking, a rash challenge waiting to happen. But look closer and a different picture emerges: a defender who reads the game early and reacts even earlier, one who steps in front of danger rather than chasing after it.
Forest have felt his absence this season when injuries bit. The back line lost its authority, and the team’s form dipped with it. That vulnerability underlined just how central Murillo has become to the way Forest defend – and how well the club has recruited in recent years.
Inside the City Ground, there is a quiet pride about that. Marinakis and his staff have repeatedly found players with room to grow, then given them a stage. Murillo is the clearest example. A ball-playing, front-foot centre-half at 23, he has already committed to another new contract running through to 2030.
If he sees that deal out, he will do more than just steady a defence. Like Gibbs-White, he has the chance to move beyond cult status and into something bigger: a modern-day Forest legend in a club that remembers its greats.
A club rooted in history, looking after its own
Forest’s sense of identity has always been shaped by those greats. That was visible again as some of the club’s promotion heroes and past favourites returned to familiar surroundings recently, including Colback, who helped drive the 2022 promotion back to the Premier League.
Around them, another project has been taking shape. Nottingham Forest’s front-of-shirt partner Bally Bet has been working to shine a light on the game’s unsung backbone: long-serving grassroots players. To do that, Forest great Mark Crossley was handed a task that suited his personality as much as his pedigree – build the first ever All-Stars Vets squad, drawn from the real characters of local football.
Crossley didn’t work alone. Other recognisable Forest faces joined him as he pieced together the Bally Bet All-Stars, a squad assembled not for transfer value or resale potential, but for stories, commitment and longevity.
Then came the twist. These veterans left behind the uneven pitches and battered changing rooms of recreation grounds and walked out instead at the City Ground, under the same stands that have watched title wins, European nights and survival scraps. On May 28, they faced a hand-picked team of Forest legends and, for an afternoon, lived out a Premier League experience.
It was a reminder of what the club stands for: ambition at the top, respect for the roots, and a refusal to let anyone dictate its future.
So when the giants circle Anderson and Murillo, they are not just bidding for talent. They are testing the resolve of a club that has rediscovered its voice. How long can Forest keep their crown jewels on Trentside – and what might they become if they do?
