Matt Maher: Eye-popping Elliot Anderson fee should send Morgan Rogers' price tag soaring

While some reports claimed the fee to be £130million, others insisted it was only £116m.

Accuracy, of course, should always be king in journalism. Yet on the other hand, what difference does a mere £14m make in the biggest-ever British transfer?

Whatever the actual fee - and everyone now seems agreed it will be a one-off, up front, cash payment of the lower sum - this is a colossal deal which will send ripples across the Premier League and beyond.

No question, it will be the cause for more gnashing of teeth on Tyneside.

It is, after all, just two years since Newcastle sold Anderson to Nottingham Forest for what was essentially a net profit of just £15m.

Under pressure to comply with the profit and sustainability rules, the Magpies reluctantly agreed to let their academy product leave for £35m, while paying Forest £20m to sign Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos in one of those eyebrow-raising “swap” deals so popular at the time.

Vlachodimos has gone on to make just one League Cup appearance in black and white and spent the whole of last season on loan at Sevilla.

Anderson, meanwhile, will surely go down as one of the greatest pieces of transfer business in Forest’s history.

Maybe Evangelos Marinakis didn’t quite get the £125m he originally wanted but even so, to effectively make a £100m profit on a player in the space of just two years is some going.

You can guarantee it is a deal which will have been watched very carefully by those inside Villa Park.

Anderson was not the only young England star who started the summer with his future the subject of intense speculation.

The other, as no Villa supporter needs telling, is Morgan Rogers and the past week has seen reports suggesting Arsenal have identified the midfielder as their No.1 summer target.

When the Gunners do eventually get around to making their move, they may discover the price has gone up.

Certainly, it is hard to imagine a scenario where Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris, a man with a track record of digging his heels in, does not see the fee City are paying for Anderson and not view it as a starting point for any negotiations over Rogers.

Player valuations have many variables but essentially come down to how much they are worth to the selling club.

In that regard, it is difficult to put a price on Rogers, such is his importance to Unai Emery’s team.

The 23-year-old also delivers football’s most precious commodity - goals. In the past two seasons he has either scored or set-up more than 50 of them. Anderson might play in a deeper role but even so, his production is slightly underwhelming. He’s yet to reach 20 goal involvements in 119 Premier League matches.

Throw in the rather important fact Middlesbrough hold a 20 per cent sell-on clause for Rogers and it becomes even clearer why a price tag of £80m (one which has admittedly come largely from Arsenal sources) feels some way below the mark.

Rogers’ own feelings will play their part. But unless he pushes for the move, Sawiris can stand relatively firm.

Villa do not want to sell Rogers but if they do, a fee of anything less than the £100m received for Jack Grealish five years ago would leave fans entitled to question why?

It feels fair to presume supporters, not just those of Villa, will also have a few questions for the Premier League in the light of the Anderson deal. Namely, just what on earth is going on with regard to City and these 115 charges for alleged breaches of financial rules?

It is more than three years since the charges were issued and more than 18 months since an independent commission concluded its hearing into the matter.

And yet we are still awaiting their ruling, with no indication of when one might actually be forthcoming. Whenever questioned, Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has hid behind the need to respect the legal process. We are well past the point where the situation could be described as embarrassing.

All you can say is City, as the Anderson deal demonstrates, are not acting like a club who expect to receive a significant punishment anytime soon. In the last 18 months they have spent nearly £600m on new players and this current transfer window is far from finished.

The manner in which they are continuing to splash the cash while a huge cloud remains will stick in the craw of clubs like Everton, who continue to count the cost of their own financial breaches.

Villa are also having to tread carefully, albeit their primary concern is with Uefa’s rules as they seek to comply with the terms of a three-year settlement agreement.

No team outside the so-called Big Six has enjoyed the consistent success of Emery’s. Next season will be their fourth straight in European competition and it is fair to wonder at what point they will begin to get some reward off the pitch for their progress on it?

Selling Rogers would be one way of easing the burden but is not essential to remaining within the limits.

After Anderson’s move, Arsenal and any other suitors must know he will not come cheap.