Darren Ferguson was ready to quit Peterborough United had they won promotion to the Championship, according to Darragh MacAnthony

The fact was revealed by Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony while speaking on talkSPORT on Friday morning.

Ferguson has now signed a three-year contract to begin his fourth permanent spell at the club after guiding Posh to the play-off semi-finals in an interim spell from January.

His third spell came to an end in February last year when he resigned following Posh’s 1-0 defeat at Pride Park. Ferguson's resignation was reluctantly accepted by Chairman Darragh MacAnthony.

MacAnthony said: “If we won promotion, he was not staying. He did not want to stay and I can’t blame him for that, he would have thought, at that time, his star was shining bright.”

MacAnthony went on to praise Ferguson for the job at the club he has done in his previous spells, questioning why “bigger” clubs have not given him a chance

He added: “He’s a safe pair of hands, I trust in what he does. I wish he’d have gotten an opportunity to manage a bigger club.

"He’s been in management 16 years, he’s won five promotions, he’s produced 60m worth of sales of players with the Peterborough policy of players under 24, his teams have scored 100+ goals a season half the time, why wouldn’t he deserve a chance?

“If we’d had won promotion, he would have had an opportunity at a club of a bigger size. He’s had Peterborough with crowds of 10,000 in the Championship, it’s not easy."

Ferguson is now tasked with rebuilding Posh’s squad with Kabongo Tshimanga the club’s oldest player not on the transfer list- at 25- with many stalwarts such as Jonson Clarke-Harris, Frankie Kent, Josh Knight listed for transfer.

Ferguson himself has said that the task is one of the main motivating factors that led to him agreeing to stay on at the club.

MacAnthony added: “Football comes in cycles, a lot of the players we put on the list have been with us longer than three years. All teams our size need to be rebuilt after three or four years.

"It’s time for a rebuild, Darren was on board with that, it was his idea too, we need to freshen things up after the disappointment of last season and falling short of our expectations.

"We’re excited about what is ahead.”