Newcastle United are right to sell midfielder - for his own benefit at least

Maybe I’m in the minority here but my X timeline was filled with posts about Nottingham Forest versus Crystal Palace, mainly about Elliot Anderson and to a slightly lesser degree Chris Wood.

Wood got the winner in a 1-0 win for Forest and continued a run of form Newcastle fans didn’t see from the New Zealander in a black and white shirt. I think there is a general consensus among supporters that selling Wood was indeed good business, but the failure to replace him wasn’t.

Eddie Howe’s squad boasts two top strikers in Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, and its true most clubs don’t have a third option. However, most clubs don’t have two injury prone strikers. That applies more to Wilson than it does Isak but as we witnessed before the international break, Newcastle faced Manchester City and Everton without a recognised a No.9.

There is, of course, Will Osula, a £15million signing from Sheffield United in the summer. But to put it simply, Howe doesn’t believe the 21-year-old is Premier League ready. As sporting director Paul Mitchell revealed, Osula is very much a “project player”, i.e somebody who Howe plans to bide his time with and develop.

Now, onto the sale of Anderson. And to take Howe’s words “it still hurts”, even more so after seeing the rave reviews he got for his jinking display against Palace.

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Nobody inside the walls of St James’ Park wanted to lose the academy graduate but the club backed themselves into a corner in regards to Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and desperately needed to raise funds at pretty much the 11th hour.

The sales of Anderson and Yankuba Minteh were wrong but ultimately right too. Talk about rather accepting a points deduction, in my opinion, is nonsense. Rules are rules, no matter how frustrating or unfair they are. The reality is, Newcastle haven’t been good sellers and two of their most promising youngsters, sadly, paid the price.

Having said that, the Anderson we’re seeing at Forest isn’t the one we saw at Newcastle, at least on a consistent basis anyway. And had he stayed put, I suspect he wouldn’t played half the minutes he has at the City Ground with Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton, Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff commonly preferred by Howe. And that’s without Sandro Tonali returning from his ban.

The 21-year-old clearly has the makings to become a top player and live up to the ‘Geordie Maradona’ tag, and my belief is he has a better chance of doing that at Nottingham Forest than he did at his boyhood club.

By the way, Matz Sels was the third former Newcastle player in action last night which like me, you probably forgot. But like Wood and Sels, it’s time to move on from Anderson and wish him the best, no matter how painful it is and may continue to be.