Elliot Anderson turned down the chance to sign for Wolverhampton Wanderers last June, expecting Newcastle United to brush off any approaches from clubs attempting to take advantage of the Magpies' PSR vulnerability.

The enquiry from the Molineux side was also knocked back by Newcastle as Anderson began to focus on pre-season at Benton, but even he was left shocked by what would happen next.

For it quickly became apparent that despite Eddie Howe making it clear that he did not want to sell the Whitley Bay lad that he was the prized asset during a frantic June in which the club had to sell him to avoid a points deduction, something that has since been stood up by Paul Mitchell at the STACK fan event last year.

READ MORE: Brendan Rodgers has already told Newcastle want they want to hear about Nicolas Kuhn

READ MORE: Newcastle United miss out on star who is Anthony Gordon's perfect signing - but there's a catch

Anderson was part of the club's future plans and when the club submitted a list of players available to appear on an Adidas advert for the club's new away kit, the former Academy star boy was on it. In the end, the shots of Anderson were reduced on the advert when it came to the final edit because he was by then a fully-fledged Nottingham Forest star.

This season Anderson has shown he can be relied on with 24 games played, one goal and one assist. He has been tipped for an England call-up to after helping Forest solidify a top three place.

However, the crazy thing is he could have been still waiting for his chance had he stayed at Newcastle this season. After suffering with a back injury last term, Anderson would have started pre-season vying for a place in midfield with Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and then later Sandro Tonali who started the campaign off still banned due to a 10-month FIFA suspension.

Notably, one of his good friends Sean Longstaff alluded to Anderson's status at Forest this season just before the reverse fixture. He told Chronicle Live then: "I’m really happy for Elliot. It shows sometimes you have to go away to show your value, I’m really happy for him."

Anderson has since said of his exit and subsequent move to the City Ground: "It was really sad.

"It wasn't to be there (Newcastle), but I've come to a great club where I've found myself, and I'm really enjoying it."

Howe has been consistent with his views on selling Anderson, even though it was clear that he would not have been able to guarantee he a game. He said at the end of last year: "Elliot was a sale we didn’t want to make,” Howe said. Nobody at the football club internally wanted to make that sale but we had to."

Expanding on the baffling PSR rule book, that encourages clubs to sell homegrown talent so soon after bringing them through an internal educational programme, Howe said: "I think I’ve said before I don’t understand that rationale - why we’re in a position that you’re incentivised to sell academy products.

"I don’t necessarily think they started with that intention of forcing teams to make those decisions."

Anderson could line up in a 3-5-2 system deployed by Nuno Espírito Santo this weekend and although the City Ground side arrive at St James' Park on the back of a 2-1 defeat to Fulham, they have won 14 of their 25 top-flight games and know a Champions League place is now, somewhat remarkably, in their own hands.

Anderson has been a major part of that and while much will be made about stopping Chris Wood and finding a way past Matz Sels between the posts, the role of the lad from Whitley Bay is just as important.