I'm not going to be a hypocrite here. I too think that over £100m for Elliot Anderson is a lot of money.

But £116m? That is quite excessive indeed.

For fee alone, I agree with United moving away from this player.

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However, the fact that City are willing to pay such a price - which is not something they usually do as their deals are much more reasonable - makes me question whether we have underestimated the importance of this player.

For City to break the British transfer record for a Nottingham Forest midfielder, you then start to ask: what is it that they are seeing?

When it comes to identifying top midfielders or top players, we know that the noisy neighbours have a very good reputation.

Bro, how the hell they pull off Rayan Cherki for £35m 😩? He is probably worth £116m.

But this shows you exactly how much they value Anderson for their team.

Usually you see such money spent on players like Cherki, those flair attackers, those who create and score goals, get you on the edge of your seat, are shirt-sellers.

Anderson is none of those things.

But his price tells you otherwise.

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We know that in today's football, asking prices of players are ridiculous. We don't see players being sold for decent prices.

But for an elite midfielder, they can repay that price just like that.

This position is one of the most important in football - if not the most.

Let's look at both City and United here.

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Whenever Rodri was in their team, they looked like an unstoppable side. When he wasn't, City were kinda crap.

It's the same with unc Casemiro. Whilst the Brazilian was in the lineup, we all felt more confident that perhaps United will have a good game. He might even pop up with a goal. Yet when he was out of the side, something big was missing to the point where we couldn't function.

This shows how vital such midfielders are to any team. They can dictate matches, control the tempo, strong defensively, good going forward, win duels, break up the play, progress the ball, make everyone around them look better, and with these two in particular, had the knack of scoring every now and then.

They are almost irreplaceable.

Almost.

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But to sign a good replacement, that would mean splashing the cash because as you can see, you're getting quite a lot from one player.

I'm not saying that United were wrong to not want to pay such a hefty price. It's still a HUGE risk regardless of the quality of the player. But if Anderson becomes the player we all expect him to become at City, we might then look at this transfer in a completely different light.

I don't think any of us would be saying 'Thank God we didn't spend £116m.' We'll probably be saying 'We let another elite midfielder strengthen a rival.'

Declan Rice was the same a few years ago. Look how he's changed Arsenal.

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I understand that United and City are in two different positions.

Despite losing Pep Guardiola, their squad is still in a much better place than ours, and still much better. They don't have as many holes to fix and can afford to spend big on one player.

For us, we have to sort out midfield, the entire left flank, sign backup strikers and goalkeepers. There is much to be done.

So spending such a large portion of your budget on one player - who is a huge risk himself - would leave United in a very precarious position.

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The flip side to this is that: are we just going to keep missing out on top players, ones who can revolutionize our team and help get us to winning titles, just because their price tag is a bit excessive? 

As we know, every player is going to cost a lot. Mateus Fernandes for example, is nowhere near worth £85m. He's probably more overpriced than Anderson.

Sandro Tonali is another valued at around £90m. Are we going to say no to him too?

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And btw, this was United's number one midfield target. Elliot Anderson, according to multiple reports, was the midfielder United saw as that Casemiro replacement.

Clearly, they didn't want him enough to allow City to have such an easy race to sign him.

That's not what you want to see from your club.

I don't know what this says about United? A lack of ambition? Can't compete with other clubs for the same players?

Nothing has changed?

City now, Spurs next with the talk about Tonali and even Fernandes. That could be three of our top targets gone.

Who do we go for then?

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The good thing is that there is still time and other targets are still available.

The worrying thing though, is that we know United have a tendency to take long with signings. But no one else does. And if other clubs are willing to do deals quickly, then we are going to end up with third and fourth choices, hardly the quality needed to take us to Premier League glory, is it?

It makes the club come across as hypocritical as they are going against what they have promised.

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What do you think though? Did United dodge an expensive bullet? Or will we come to regret this?

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Elliot Anderson will sign for Man City for record fee of £116m | Image credit: Getty Images via Goal