Peterborough United bid for Mansfield forward Danny Rose takes another twist

But Posh director of football Barry Fry is unsure if the deal will happen after a war of words broke out between the clubs in the last 24 hours.

Fry backed chairman Darragh MacAnthony’s claim that Posh had been offered Rose by Mansfield chairman John Radford as Stags manager Dave Flitcroft had deemed the player surplus to his requirements.

Posh promptly made a bid which was rejected. Hours later Mansfield declared through their local press that an unnamed club had seen a £300k bid turned down for a 24 year-old who scored 17 goals last season, all of them while Evans was Stags’ manager.

MacAnthony, who revealed the Posh bid was not as much as £300k, then accused Mansfield of using Posh to bump Rose’s price tag up.

Fry said today: “My chairman is spot on. John Radford contacted me asking if we wanted Rose. I asked Steve Evans who said yes. We put an offer in writing as we were asked to do and I was told we were £20k short.

“I have no idea we were offered the player if they didn’t really want to sell him to us, but I can guess. We are still interested and if the player has asked for a transfer who can blame him? He played his best football for Steve, but he’s now been managed three times by Flitcroft and each time he has tried to get rid of him. He sold him from Barnsley to Bury and then he sold him from Bury to Mansfield. He clearly doesn’t fancy him.

“I’m not so sure it will happen though. I’m not sure they really want to do business with us.”

MacAnthony said on social media last night: “So regards Danny Rose thing. the owner of Mansfield called Barry Fry last Thursday to say the lad was surplus to requirements and would we like to sign him.

“We asked manager, he said yes so we made a fair, discreet bid for the player. Next thing it’s out publicly we had £300k bid turned down.We didn’t bid £300k for player, but as per usual I feel we are being used to get interest elsewhere in player. All very odd & quite frankly exhausting. Happy to do business with any club sensibly. On we go & no biggie.”

Mansfield issued a bland statement this afternoon stating: “For clarity, we had not and will not reveal the identity of the bidding clubs out of professional courtesy.

“It should be noted that it is not uncommon, in my experience, for in-demand players to be subject to media speculation in an attempt by others to unsettle them during transfer windows.

“We will continue to conduct our business in the right way and are in a very good place right now – as a club and squad - ahead of the big kick-off on Saturday.”