'Really confident' - £55m World Cup star backed to be like a new signing for Newcastle United in 2026/27
Newcastle United’s signing of Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest for £55million last summer has been the subject of much debate.
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe has backed Anthony Elanga to put a disappointing debut campaign behind him and have a ‘great’ 2026/27 season.
The 24-year-old winger joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest last summer to become the club’s first summer signing. Having targeted the Sweden international for two years and witnessed the impact he can make on matches first hand, expectations were high upon his arrival.
But Elanga ultimately failed to live up to any pre-season hype as he registered no goals and one Premier League assist in 32 outings in 2025/26. His only goals for the club were consolations in the 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat at Manchester City and two in the 7-2 loss at Barcelona in the Champions League.
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Anthony Elanga shining at the World Cup
This summer has seen Elanga put his disappointing club form behind him with some impressive displays for Sweden at the 2026 World Cup. The Newcastle winger scored an impressive goal in Sweden’s 1-1 draw against Japan to confirm his country’s place in the knockout rounds.
Elanga also scored Sweden’s only goal in a 5-1 defeat against the Netherlands last weekend.
Newcastle will be hoping the winger’s confidence and eye for goal will translate back at club level once he returns next month. Newcastle’s players are due back for pre-season training on July 13 though Elanga will be given extra time off due to his World Cup exploits along with Bruno Guimaraes, Yoane Wissa, Nick Woltemade, Malick Thiaw and Dan Burn.
The best is yet to come from Anthony Elanga
Despite his disappointing previous season at Newcastle, Elanga has retained the faith of his manager. Howe insists the best is yet to come from the former Forest man, who he has backed to come back this summer like a new signing and have a ‘really great’ 2026/27 season.
Howe said: “Anthony had a really strong year [in 2024/25] for Nottingham Forest, a lot of goals, a lot of assists, a lot of goal contributions.
“We obviously came up against him a few times and I thought he was always a really strong performer against us, gave us problems in those games.
“He's obviously come to us and I think he's had some really good games for us. Obviously, there have been some games in there where he's found it a little bit more difficult, as every player would.
“I still believe the best is very much yet to come for Ant here. I think he's got some outstanding qualities that we really value and we really want in the team, but there'll be an element of frustration, I'm sure, for him that he hasn't shown his consistent best throughout the season.
“But as I said, players take different times to settle, different times to get into a full understanding of what we ask them to do.
“Again, he's a player that looks like he's benefiting from full-team training at the moment and I'm really confident that next season he'll have a really great year.”