Anthony Elanga has now gone public on Newcastle United interest in signing him | OneFootball

As was widely reported at the time, Newcastle United tried to sign Anthony Elanga at the end of June 2024.

United had to sell one or more players in order to stay within three season PSR limits.

Nottingham Forest in the same position, so Newcastle sold Elliot Anderson to Forest and tried to get Anthony Elanga as the player coming the other way.

Nuno and Forest wouldn’t agree to that, so Eddie Howe and Newcastle United forced into signing a different player from the City Ground, that ended up being Odysseas Vlachodimos.

That wasn’t the end of it this summer though with Newcastle United and Anthony Elanga.

Once Palace decided in the very final stages of the window that it wouldn’t be possible for Marc Guehi to leave, Newcastle United very late on tried to get somebody for their other remaining priority position, but a widely reported £35m offer for right winger Anthony Elanga turned down by Nottingham Forest.

Then finally, Sky Sports saying their information was that late on deadline day a £50m NUFC offer was turned down by Forest for Anthony Elanga.

International breaks do of course bring club players together, so in recent days we have seen Alexander Isak and Anthony Elanga line up together as Sweden won 3-1 against Azerbaijan, Isak scoring twice. Then on Sunday night, Alexander Isak scored once again in a 3-0 win over Estonia, though this time, Anthony Elanga was one of two subs in the 79th minute who replaced the Newcastle striker and Gyokeres, the other goalscorer.

Now Anthony Elanga has been asked by media in Sweden about the reported interest from Newcastle United, very interesting that instead of just doing no comment, or brushing it off, the winger was actually happy to go public on Newcastle’s interest.

Anthony Elanga talking to Fotboll Skanalen regarding Newcastle United trying to sign him:

“It is clear you can see that Newcastle United are interested [in signing me].

“It means that I’m playing good football, when a big club shows interest.

“However, Nottingham Forest is also a big club.

“They have won two Champions Leagues, even though it was before I was born… but I am happy in Nottingham and have a contract there.

“I am focusing on Nottingham Forest and I hope to have a good season, then we will see what happens…

“Alexander Isak talked to me about it (Newcastle United interest in signing Anthony Elanga).

“However, I said the same to him, as I say to you.

“We have a good relationship and good chemistry when we play together [for Sweden] but I have a contract with Nottingham Forest…”

A bit like the Marc Guehi situation, I think this is another one to keep a close eye on.

Eddie Howe has a detailed database of long-term targets who have been identified some time ago and/or that interest getting more intense over a period of time.

The Newcastle United boss prepared to wait for Sven Botman when he couldn’t originally get him in January 2022. Anthony Gordon a player that Howe had been interested in for a long time, whilst the Head Coach said he was first alerted to Will Osula some years ago after Jason Tindall worked as a coach with the then teenager at Sheffield United.

Interestingly, Alexander Isak and Will Osula both played in Solna last night at the appropriately named Strawberry Arena, maybe it is a sign!