Nottingham Forest boss Vitor Pereira says Elliot Anderson deserves “the top of the world” and cannot say whether will be at the club next season.
Anderson scored an 88th-minute goal to earn a point in a 1-1 draw against former club Newcastle to put Forest on the brink of Premier League survival, after Harvey Barnes had given the visitors the lead.
The England midfielder is still performing despite the recent death of his mother Helen, whose funeral was on Friday, less than 24 hours after the Europa League loss to Aston Villa.
Anderson, who will be a key figure in Thomas Tuchel’s World Cup plans, has been linked with a summer move away from the City Ground this summer and Pereira wants Forest to enjoy him while they can.
“It’s difficult for me, and everybody, to understand what he is feeling inside of him,” the Portuguese said.
“I believe that he is honouring his mother, going inside the pitch and running until the last metre, until the last breath.
“I cannot say (whether he will stay), I don’t have the answer. I know he deserves the top of the world.
“I know that he’s our player, and we need to enjoy him because I have worked with the top talent players, but to find a top player with this character is not easy.
“I’m not thinking about the next season. I’m thinking about finishing this season in the best position that we can.
“In the warm-up, my assistants, they said to me, ‘Elliot is on fire today’. Every time that he shot on goal, he scored.
“He had the funeral of his mother two days ago, I didn’t speak with him, but I believe that he wants to honour his mother with a goal.
“I believe that’s why he tried until the last minute to score a goal, because this is the way that he found to go on the pitch and to give everything to play for.”
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said seeing Anderson scoring such an important goal “really hurt” and reiterated that his sale to Forest was “the most reluctant transfer I’ll ever do”.
Anderson’s move to the City Ground from the Magpies in 2024 was essentially a £35million transfer to satisfy his boyhood club’s PSR demands.
“It was something we regretted when we were doing it,” he said. “We knew that would be a very, very painful transfer, one that we had to do.
“We had no choice, but it was probably the most reluctant transfer I’ll ever do, because we knew the quality of the player.
“We’d seen him close up for a number of years training with us. He was beginning to break into the team and he was being for me, the back end of that season, really effective in a number of different positions.
“It really hurts to see him do that against us today, he’s going to go and have a fantastic career, wherever he goes, wherever his career takes him.
“He’s a great lad as well, so it’s painful for us to take but he’s an outstanding player.”
