When Wayne Rooney traveled to Carrington to visit his former teammate and new Manchester United manager Michael Carrick, it felt like just yesterday that the pair were helping Sir Alex Ferguson dominate English football. Time flies.
Yes, it was 22 years ago that United won a fierce battle for the Everton sensation, following a breakthrough tournament at Euro 2004 that saw Rooney move to Old Trafford as a teenager.
Every elite club in the Premier League, and probably Europe as well, wanted to sign the 18-year-old wonder, but in the end it turned out he was destined for Manchester, where he would leave 13 years later as the club’s all-time top scorer.
Back to the present, United are also trying to win the race to sign another potential England star.
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It’s already been an interesting summer for Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup squad, with Anthony Gordon joining Barcelona in a surprise deal that could have implications for Marcus Rashford’s own future at the Camp Nou.
England Eleven – Predict the World Cup | |
|---|---|
position | player |
GK | pickford |
R.B. | james |
C.B. | stone |
C.B. | Guehi |
lb | o’reilly |
CM | rice |
CM | anderson |
R.M. | of |
morning | rogers |
LM | gordon |
ST | Kane |
Three Lions team-mate Morgan Rodgers has also attracted significant interest from the likes of Arsenal and United after an excellent season with Aston Villa, and the 23-year-old could become Tuchel’s go-to player ahead of Jude Bellingham in the United States.
Perhaps the most intense transfer war is likely to center around another player expected to start this summer, Elliott Anderson, with the Red Devils and Manchester City currently vying for his signature.
As revealed by journalist Peter Hall, City are currently thought to be the frontrunners, but Anderson is said to be keen on a move, with a potential transfer fee of over £100m.
That said, Hall suggests that INEOS is not out of the picture yet, with the Old Trafford side still prepared to make a “serious play” for the 23-year-old.
Given Hall’s previous reports that the Man City deal is thought to be “very advanced”, that would suggest the Red Devils need to move quickly, especially with the World Cup looming.
Why Anderson could be a Rooney-style player for Manchester United
Rooney was still a teenager when he took Euro 2004 by storm. That summer was precisely the moment when he made himself known to the wider world, even if his talent was not yet obvious to Premier League audiences beforehand.
Anderson, 23, hasn’t burst onto the scene in the same way, but like his compatriot, this summer’s major tournament could be the stage for him to take his game to a new level after two impressive seasons at Nottingham Forest.
Strangely, the Geordie playmaker, who was sold by Newcastle United in the summer of 2024, was not even considered for his home country at that stage. He is now set to be Declan Rice’s starting partner at the World Cup.
What an improvement this was, as he bagged two fine assists in Forest’s 3-2 defeat to Carrick’s side, and the midfielder’s undoubted talent was revealed in a sort of audition at Old Trafford earlier this month.
He, like Rooney before him, has a “big kid on the playground” vibe to his game, someone who can do it all from box to box.
Indeed, former Bristol Rovers team-mate Glenn Whelan gushed about Anderson’s ability to “grasp the game by the scruff of the neck”, while also hailing him as a “throwback” in the mold of Paul Gascoigne.
“He’s got a bit of a throwback, the way he handles the ball and all that. People talk about Gazza (Paul Gascoigne) because of where he’s from and he’s got that,” the former Republic of Ireland international told BBC Sport.
“He can grab the game by the scruff of his neck. It’s been a difficult season for Forest, but if we can get him into a top-four squad we’ll see big progress again.”
Rooney, who was affectionately known as “Wazza” in his youth, is no stranger to such comparisons, and his likeness once again underlines why Anderson is such an attractive target.
Similarly to Rooney, he feels like he can be used anywhere on the pitch, having played as a No. 6, No. 8 and even No. 10 at the City Ground, and as a winger during his loan spell at Bristol, and is likely to continue to do so.
As he showed against United most recently, the former Magpies star boasts an impressive passing range similar to Rooney’s but also has an arm of steel to match Silk, finishing the season fourth in the division for total tackles.
He’s not afraid to put his foot down, yet has an end product, and his game has an almost street soccer player style.
So more than 20 years after plucking Rooney from Everton, when it seemed his development had outgrown the Toffees, United may still have hope of securing a similar deal for Anderson this time around.
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