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Posh Diary: ‘Digger’ was our best export to the top flight
Luke Steele playing for Barnsley in 2011. Photo: Alan Storer/Peterborough ET
RYAN Bennett joins a select group of Posh players in the club’s Football League era to move from London Road straight to the top flight of English football.
He’s the first player in a decade to make the move from Posh to the very top in one step. Goalkeeper Luke Steele was the last in 2002.
Bennett will formally join Norwich City at the end of this season, but the centre-back should beware as a move to the Premier League is not always a guarantee of fame and fortune.
ALAN SWANN looks back at other players who joined top-flight clubs from Posh.
Terry Simpson
Posh to West Brom 1963
This cultured midfielder made 45 appearances for Posh in the 1962-63 season before earning a move to First Division West Brom.
Simpson went on to win a League Cup winners medal with The Baggies.
Top-flight record: 71 appearances, 3 goals.
Derek Dougan
Posh to Leicester 1965
One of the best players to ever wear Posh colours, this Northern Ireland international striker scored 46 goals in 90 matches for the city side, including a famous one in the FA Cup against Arsenal, before moving into the top flight with the Foxes for a fee of £25,000.
Also played for Wolves in the old First Division for whom he scored 114 goals in 247 appearances.
Top-flight record: 311 appearances, 149 goals.
Dave Metchick
Posh to QPR 1968
This skilful inside forward spent two seasons at Posh in the 1960s, making 41 appearances and scoring six goals before moving to QPR in 1967.
Metchick made just three top-flight appearances in a team that went on to finish bottom of the old First Division.
Top-flight record: 3 appearances, 0 goals.
John Wile
Posh to West Brom, 1970
A great Posh centre-half who earned the move to the old First Division that he deserved when West Brom paid a Posh record £35,000 in 1970. He’d made 1118 appearances for Posh at the time.
Wile became a Baggies legend with a string of gritty defensive displays in a 13-year Hawthorns career that yielded an impressive 619 appearances, most of them at the top level.
Wile returned to Posh for a very unsuccessful stint as player-manager in 1983.
Top-flight record: 383 appearances, 18 goals.
Mark Heeley
Posh to Arsenal 1977
Heeley was a gifted winger, but a troubled soul.
He made just 17 appearances for Posh as a youngster - a short career blighted by temper tantrums - before Arsenal made a shock move for him, paying £50,000 to take him to Highbury to play alongside Liam Brady and Alan Hudson.
It didn’t work out though and two years later Heeley was back in the lower divisions playing for Northampton Town.
Top flight record: 15 appearances, 1 goal.
Micky Gynn
Posh to Coventry 1983
One of the best home-grown players in Posh history, this little midfielder scored 37 times for the club in 181 appearances before he was sold for a song to Coventry City. The £60,000 transfer fee in 1983 caused outrage among Posh fans at the time.
Gynn famously went on to win a 1987 FA Cup winners medal with the Sky Blues and gave the club a decade of service, all of it in the top flight.
Top-flight record: 241 appearances, 32 goals.
David Billington
Posh to Sheffield Wednesday 1997
After just three starting appearances for Posh, and a further four as a substitute, Wednesday boss David Pleat paid £500,000 to take 17 year-old Billington to Hillsborough in a stunning transfer deadline day move.
But injuries plagued the midfielder’s career and he was never able to hold down a place in the Wednesday first-team. He did return to London Road briefly, but he was forced to quit the professional game aged 22 in 2001.
Top-flight record: 7 appearances, 0 goals.
Mark
McKeever
Posh to Sheffield Wednesday 1997
Winger McKeever moved to Wednesday on the same day as Billington for a combined fee of £1 million. His move was an even bigger shock as he’d made just four Posh first-team appearances.
McKeever’s Premier League debut came against Chelsea in 1999, but he made just two other appearances before returning to the lower leagues with Bristol Rovers and Reading.
Top-flight record: 3 appearances, no goals.
Simon Davies
Posh to Spurs, 2000
The most successful export to the Premier League in Posh history, Davies made his 300th top-flight appearance when turning out for Fulham on Wednesday night.
The Welsh international midfielder was a star of the Posh team that reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup in the 1997-98 season before Spurs pounced, paying a Posh record £700,000 fee to secure his services. He’d scored six goals in 75 appearances for Posh.
‘Digger’ also played for Everton in a top-level career that has spanned 12 uninterrupted seasons.
Top-flight record: 300 appearances, 27 goals.
Matthew Etherington
Posh to Spurs, 2000
A dazzling left-winger who made his Posh debut at the age of 15 when still a Deacon’s schoolboy.
Spurs took him from London Road on the same day as Davies for £500,000 after six Posh goals in 58 appearances.
Etherington and Davies made their top-flight debuts against Liverpool at Anfield. Unlike Davies, Etherington spent two seasons outside the Premier League with West Ham.
‘Mushy’ is still going strong at Stoke.
Top-flight record: 268 appearances, 20 goals.
Luke Steele
Posh to Manchester United, 2002
Glinton schoolboy Steele played just two games for Posh at the end of the 2001-02 season, but that was enough to persuade Manchester United to splash out £500,000 to take him to Old Trafford.
He never made the grade at United and has yet to make a Premier League appearance despite a consistent career that has now taken him to Barnsley.
Top flight record: 0 appearances, 0 goals.
n Top-flight records only after leaving Posh.
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