Peterborough United remain ambitious despite attempted first-team squad cull

Oliver Norburn is one of the experienced players placed on the transfer list by Posh. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has assured fans the club remains as ambitious as ever despite a drastic pruning of last season’s first-team squad.

There were many grumbles on social media after the Posh retained and released lists were unveiled.

Accusations of sacrificing a prom otion bid to cut costs were quickly made, and swiftly rejected by MacAnthony.

It’s known reducing the club’s debt levels are a priority this summer, but it’s not happening at the expense of a promotion push, according to the chairman.

Taking the transfer listed players out of the equation, it’s now a very young Posh squad, but experienced players will be supplemented during the close season.

MacAnthony usually re-invest large chunks of transfer money received into new players.

“Every person at our club is as ambitious as they have always been,” MacAnthony said.

“We are not suddenly sticking a load of teenagers into our team and, as always, we will be buying players this summer.

"We are all looking forward to shaping the squad for the new campaign.”

First-team manager Darren Ferguson added: "We’ll add one or two experienced players.

"We will need that, especially if we’re going to be losing a large group of players with experience.

"But my strengths lay working on the grass in developing and improving young players and that’s what I will now need to do. We’ll then see how far we can go.

“I don’t want to go down the route of bringing in young loan players from Premier League clubs next season, not when I feel we’ve got our own young players who can make the step up.

"We will aim to be competitive. The Championship remains the aim, but we want to be developing our own players as well.”

Just like the first team, the Posh Academy age group sides enjoyed a strong second half of the season.

The under 21s enjoyed some excellent results at Professional Development League level, while the Under 18s won a League Cup competition as well as finishing third in their Development League, ahead of some Championship clubs.

Posh Under 16s also reached the final of a League Cup competition, but were beaten by Wigan Athletic.