Nottingham Forest's Rising Stars: Anderson, Gibbs-White, and Murillo

At the City Ground, Nottingham Forest have a problem most clubs would love to inherit: their best players are becoming too good to ignore.

Elliot Anderson, in particular, has turned heads far beyond Trentside. Manchester City and Manchester United are watching, weighing up whether to test Forest’s resolve. That is easier said than done.

Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis does not blink in a negotiation. Those who have dealt with him know the rules: nobody leaves unless Forest stand to gain in a way that genuinely shifts the club forward. Sentiment does not come into it. Value does.

Anderson’s value is heading in only one direction.

The promising England international is expected to be a central figure for Thomas Tuchel’s side at this summer’s World Cup, a stage that could send his reputation into the stratosphere. On North American soil, under the glare of a global audience, a strong tournament would turn serious interest into a full‑blown transfer battle.

The numbers being whispered already tell their own story. Any club wanting Anderson is likely to be quoted a nine-figure fee. City, United or anyone else will need to find more than £100 million if they want a midfielder many inside the game believe can light up the tournament and anchor a top side for the next decade.

Those close to him see a throwback in his game. Speaking to GOAL in association with Bally Bet, former Forest midfielder Jack Colback struggled to pigeonhole him into modern labels.

“He’s just very, very good. He’s a very old-fashioned kind of midfielder, where he does everything,” Colback said. “Nowadays, you've got kind of No. 6, No. 8, No. 10, those sorts of positions. Elliot just does it all. His defensive play is fantastic. On the ball, he dictates play and is very good. He is creative and he also gets forward. He’s one of those that does it all. He could be one of the very best.”

That is the kind of profile that makes recruitment departments lean forward. A midfielder who can screen, create, and surge beyond the striker does not come cheap, especially when he is English, international, and still climbing.

If Forest ever decide to cash in, the collective coffers would swell. A sale at those figures would reshape what the club can do in the market, allowing them to reinvest heavily and deepen a squad already stacked with emerging talent. For now, though, Anderson remains part of a core that has given Forest both survival and swagger.

He is not alone.

Morgan Gibbs-White has already become the face of this Forest side, a talismanic No.10 in the Garibaldi red who has taken his game to another level since arriving. Around him, a new defensive pillar has emerged in Brazilian centre-half Murillo, a player who looks as if he has been built for modern football: big, bold on the ball, and unafraid to play.

Colback was in the building when Murillo walked through the door and remembers the early impressions.

“I've watched him a few times. Live in the stadium, he's one of them who kind of looks like he's got a mistake in him. But he reads the game so well and reacts so well,” Colback said.

That tension is part of Murillo’s appeal. He plays on the edge, invites the press, then steps past it. When injuries bit this season, Forest felt his absence. The drop-off in form told its own story about how quickly he had become central to their plans.

“They [Forest] have missed him a little bit this season with injuries, and that showed a bit in the form. But I think it's credit to the club, the recruitment has been really, really good for a good few years now - credit to the owner for that,” Colback added.

Murillo has now committed to another new contract that runs to 2030. On paper, that secures his future. In reality, it strengthens Forest’s hand. If he stays, he has the platform to become a modern-day club legend, mentioned in the same breath as Gibbs-White in years to come. If he goes, it will be on Forest’s terms, for a fee that reflects his status.

The same applies across this squad. Forest have quietly built a group that is young, ambitious and, crucially, saleable. That is not a dirty word on the banks of the Trent; it is a strategy. Develop, improve, and if the right offer comes, sell high and start again.

Amid all the talk of big fees and bigger futures, there has been a reminder of where the club’s heartbeat lies.

Recently, a number of figures who helped shape Forest’s modern story returned to familiar surroundings. Among them was Colback, part of the side that dragged the club back into the Premier League in 2022. This time, he was not fighting for promotion. He was part of a different kind of celebration.

Forest’s front-of-shirt partner Bally Bet has set out to shine a light on the long-serving players who keep grassroots football alive. To do that, they turned to a man who knows the club and its people inside out: Forest great Mark Crossley.

Crossley was tasked with compiling the first ever All-Stars Vets squad, a team built not from household names but from the real characters of the game, the ones who turn up, week after week, on the recreation grounds and council pitches that feed the professional pyramid.

He did not work alone. Other familiar Forest faces joined him in assembling the Bally Bet All-Stars, giving the project the kind of authenticity money cannot buy. Then came the payoff.

The All-Stars swapped their usual surroundings for the City Ground itself. On May 28, they walked out of the tunnel, under the stands that have seen European Cups and relegation battles, to face a side of hand-picked Forest legends. They received the full Premier League treatment: the stadium, the build-up, the sense that, for one night, this was the big time.

For Forest, it was a neat snapshot of where the club stands. On the pitch, Anderson, Gibbs-White and Murillo are attracting the gaze of Europe’s elite and inflating balance sheets with every performance. Off it, the club is still finding ways to honour the roots of the game and the people who sustain it.

The question now is not whether the giants of the Etihad Stadium and Old Trafford will come calling. It is what price Marinakis will put on the players who are fast becoming the next generation of Forest icons – and how far those sales, when they eventually come, can propel the club in an era where ambition and financial muscle must walk hand in hand.