The numbers around Elliot Anderson are rising fast – to extraordinary levels. A little like the player himself. At the beginning of last week, when he flew to Florida with the England squad for their pre-World Cup camp, he was the Nottingham Forest midfielder who had finished a gruelling club season, which featured four managers, on the right side of the relegation line.

The 23-year-old had established himself as a first choice in Thomas Tuchel’s England team over the course of the campaign, albeit he remained in single digits for caps. There was a lot of noise about Anderson on the transfer market. The richness of the promise was there for all to see.

Then Manchester City made their opening bid of £80m and the conversation around him changed significantly; the perceptions, as well. This kind of cash tends to make that happen. Forest rejected it and indicated that, if they were to sell, the fee would have to include nine figures. Another sharp intake of breath. But then City went again, as Anderson prepared to play in England’s final warm-up game before the World Cup against Costa Rica in Orlando on Wednesday, offering £106m plus £16m in add-ons.

The record fee for a British player is the £105m Arsenal paid West Ham in 2023 for Declan Rice – Anderson’s England partner. Rice is now a Premier League title-winning superstar. The record fee paid by a British club is the £125m Liverpool gave to Newcastle for Alexander Isak last summer. The Forest chair, Evangelos Marinakis, is understood to want a basic fee of at least that for Anderson. Who would bet against him getting it? Or, certainly, who would bet against City getting a deal done? They appear to be pot committed, to borrow the poker term.

It feels as if some fans are struggling to reconcile City’s power play and the vast sums involved with the reality that Anderson has had two seasons as a Premier League regular with Forest. Before that, he made 13 starts in the competition for his boyhood club, Newcastle. Never mind that his performance levels have been excellent for Forest. He was instrumental for them in 2024-25 as they reached the FA Cup semi-final and almost qualified for the Champions League.

A part of it is that Anderson’s rise has been so meteoric as to defy comprehension. Even he has given the impression that he is battling to get his head around it. “It’s been crazy, it has happened so quickly,” he said at the end of March on England duty. And that was before the latest developments.

Everybody needs to wise up. As Tuchel did when he went to watch Anderson in the European Under-21 Championship final last June when he ran the show in England’s victory against Germany. Tuchel left knowing he had the answer to his problem position of No 6; the player to free Rice up as the No 8. Tuchel called up Anderson last September and has counted on him ever since.

Anderson is primed to enter a different stratosphere. Is it a lot to handle? Yes. Is he handling it? Also, yes. There were two ways of assessing Anderson’s reaction to the City bid in the Costa Rica game. Either he wanted to show them he was worth it. Or the knowledge that they knew he was worth it boosted him. Maybe it was a bit of both.

What Tuchel and the England fans present saw was a complete midfield display. Costa Rica, who have not qualified for the World Cup, were close to the beaches; not quite on them yet. They played as if they wished they were. Anderson stamped all over the caveat. He was bright and urgent with the ball, picking it up and moving it securely, sometimes incisively. He set the tempo with a game-high 74 successful passes; the next best on the list was John Stones with 49. Anderson also had the most touches with 94; Nico O’Reilly was second with 56.

Anderson’s mobility and comfort in possession come from his younger days when he played as a No 10 or winger and what stands out are the economy of his touches, the sharpness of his turns. Then there is his work without the ball. It is Anderson’s basic toughness, as much as anything else. Costa Rica fouled him five times and there was the moment on 36 minutes when he was involved in a shuddering clash of heads with Orlando Galo. There were no histrionics; only a desire to bounce straight back up. It advertised a remorselessness.

Anderson made three tackles, had seven ball recoveries and won eight of his nine duels. When Costa Rica had their only flicker of an opening after a loose pass by the England goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, there was an inevitability about Anderson being there to block Galo’s shot. “He’s a top player, there’s nothing more to say,” Tuchel said. “He’s the full package.”

Tuchel is relaxed about transfer negotiations involving his players going on at the World Cup. He knows it is a fact of the game and wants to enable them rather than suppress them. The Football Association have medics on hand who can carry out medicals, if needed. Tuchel would prefer there were no talks on the day before matches and on matchdays.

“Elliot seems not affected [by City’s interest],” Tuchel said. “I won’t speak to him about it but my assistant coach spoke with him. It should push him because it’s proof of what he’s capable to do and at what level he can perform. At the moment it seems like a push for him.”

How must Newcastle be feeling after they sacrificed Anderson on the altar of Premier League profitability and sustainability rules? And not only because there was no sell-on clause in the £35m deal that took him to Forest in 2024. Or Scotland, for whom Anderson played from under-16 to under-21 level? He was eligible for them through his grandmother only to be drawn to England, the county of his birth.

It was a close-run thing. Anderson joined up with the Scotland senior squad for the first time in September 2023 only to pull out after one training session. He needed more time to think before committing himself, having come to realise that an England career may be possible. He got his first under-21 cap for them a year later.

Tuchel argued that if Anderson signed for City, it would remain business as usual. “He’s not a new player,” he said. “People will try to hang around his neck this price but in reality nothing changes. He just changes the club. That’s the rules of the game.”

Tuchel was kidding nobody. Anderson is headed for the stars. All people can do is follow.