Anthony Elanga opens up on Man Utd exit with Nottingham Forest claim
The latest Nottingham Forest news from Nottinghamshire Live as the Reds’ Sweden plays down any talk of a rift with Erik ten Hag
Anthony Elanga insists his move from Manchester United to Nottingham Forest, one which brought the curtain down on a seven-year relationship. was a ‘good decision’.
Elanga joined the Old Trafford outfit as a teenager, progressed through the youth ranks at Carrington and seemed to have made his breakthrough when Ralf Rangnick was in charge during the 2021/22 campaign.
In all he played 55 times for United, in both the Premier League and Champions League before first team opportunities began to dry up under Erik ten Hag. That precipitated a summer transfer to the City Ground, in a £15million deal that brought with it a five-year contract
Since then Forest have struggled to extricate themselves from the wrong half of the table, while after stuttering initially United seem to have turned a corner. On a personal note Elanga has played 25 times for Forest and already scored more goals (5), than he did in twice as many matches with the Red Devils (4). Indeed, when fit he is one of the first names down on the team-sheet.
Which goes a long way to explaining why Elanga chose to quit Old Trafford – and Elanga does not hold any grudge against Ten Hag. “No, I wouldn’t say that [Ten Hag was the reason for his departure]. I just wanted to play, that was especially important to me.
“I’m young and don’t want to sit on the bench all season, you know? When you are young you want to play, you want to make mistakes, you want to take risks,” he told
But he wasn’t the reason for my departure. I focused mainly on myself, not on others.”
Asked about whether he hoped to flourish under ten Hag like Frenkie de Jong and Matthijs de Ligt did at Ajax, Elanga added: “Of course I also saw what he did at Ajax. But when you come to England, everything is different.
