20 YEARS OF FRY: The trickiest transfer of them all and the best quotes

TOP QUOTES

“I told Posh fans I’d get them out of Division Two when I arrived as manager. I did, by taking them straight into Division Three.

“My wife once said she’d be happy living with me in a tent by the river. She doesn’t know how close that came to reality.

“As a manager I brought in £10 million in transfer fees for Posh. As a director of football for Darragh MacAnthony it’s close to £40 million.”

“The fans organised a red card protest about me once. They were going to wave a red card at a certain point of a home match, but I defused the situation by waving one myself!”

“There were plenty of fans who realised how much I had done to keep the club afloat in the early days. They just weren’t as noisy as the ones who didn’t want me there.”

“I’m proud of the fact we have never been late with salary payments in my 20 years at the club. I am proud of the fact that I didn’t quit when things were very difficult. I may be a lot of things, but I’m no quitter.”

“I am lucky enough to have great friends in football who kept me going in the dark times. David Gold, who I worked for at Birmingham, loaned me money to keep going with no expectation of getting it back. I’m pleased to say I have paid every penny back.”

“Some­one threatened to shoot me on a fans’ website once. That was worrying as was the time when all four tyres on my car were slashed while it was parked outside the ground.”

TRICKIEST TRANSFER

“We did a deal to sign Craig Mackail­-Smith from Dagenham & Redbride. He was going to join us at the end of January, 2007, but suddenly Sunderland tried to hi­jack the deal.

“Obviously Craig and his representatives fancied that move. Sunderland were a massive club who would offer much more money than us.

“But our deal was set in stone and I wasn’t going to budge. I knew Craig would be a great player for us.

“I had to go round his house to tell him straight that he would be joining us. I fell out big­-time with his father and with his agent who was Robert Codner, an old player of mine at Barnet.

“But we insisted on Craig honouring his agreement and it worked out okay. He even became my daughter’s partner and gave me another grandchild!”

TOP TRANSFER

“George Boyd was rated by everyone as the best player in the Conference so we were thrilled to get him for £260k.

“It was never a record signing for a non­-league footballer though as everyone reported at the time.

“I once sold Andy Clarke from Barnet to Wimbledon for £250k plus £100k in add ons!”