Europe has been calling for young Peterborough United striker

Posh have received ‘substantial’ offers for ​the speedy 21 year-old striker, but there remains a reluctance to sell a player seen as key to the club’s chances of promotion from League One this season.

The offers have come from Spain, Portugal and Denmark and Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony – a huge fan of Jones – believes the bids will be data driven.

On the latest edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast MacAnthony said: “There have been serious bids for Ricky and a couple have been substantial. It’s something I’ve never seen before in my time at the club, but three clubs from three different European countries have made an offer for one of our players.

"A Second Division club in Spain, a Danish Premier League club and a Premier League team from Portugal have all bid for Ricky and I imagine a lot of the interest is data driven for a player with amazing speed and pressing stats. At 21 he is an unbelievable prospect.

"I was in the office when Barry Fry (Posh director of football) took the call from Portugal. They were not one of the massive clubs in Portugal, but they bid £1.5 million with add ons and a sell on.

“They made me laugh as they said they were famous for selling players on at a big profit so we would make plenty from any future sale which is what I often say when I’m negotiating.

"I asked them how much they’d made on transfers and then told them we’d made that much this summer. I then said no thank you and good luck.”

MacAnthony confirmed manager Darren Ferguson would have the final say on any player departures. The chairman said there was a recent bid of £2.7 million plus add ons for an unnamed Posh player which was taken to the manager who rejected it.

Posh got off the mark with a 4-1 League One win at Shrewsbury last weekend thanks to two goals apiece from Kwame Poku and Joel Randall.

Posh are at Exeter City this Saturday when club captain Hector Kyprianou is set to start for the first time this season.