It's wrong to panic in pre-season, but it's fair to worry about Peterborough United's prospects once the serious stuff starts

He pretty much earned millionaire status for the first time on the back of it. He has a great skill in making you feel like you are buying into something special. He can make you feel good about something even if you start listening to the patter believing the opposite.

MacAnthony was in fine form on the latest edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast this week. He insists there will be ‘more ups than downs’ for Posh this season. ‘Promotion remains the aim,’ he added as he promised the many naysayers his team will prove them wrong. It’s difficult to knock the positivity and optimism he shows, even if the evidence for both is currently thin on the ground. Confidence is coming only from intangibles.

We have to hope the chairman is right. He’s surprised us before, most recently the re-brand into a young and hungry squad after the Sheffield Wednesday play-off debacle. Not many of us believed losing so many established players by choice would lead to one of the most entertaining seasons in the club’s history. One that deserved more success than it delivered.

It is of course wrong to panic in pre-season anyway. Freaky-looking results are commonplace, but whereas I usually approach League One seasons with a spring in my step and full of confidence a top six spot is the minimum Posh target, my overwhelming feeling a few days before the big klck-off on Saturday is one of trepidation.

Last season was a shock to the system. The drop-off from the levels of that 2023-24 campaign was huge and I’m not at all convinced the downward trajectory is over. It could be a slow climb back to promotion contenders, but, as long as it happens, while, easing the club’s financial burdens, well I can live with that.

Archie Collins is the one remaining regular from the last Posh team to reach the League One play-offs, one that thrilled us with the style of football as well as the results. And the tenacious midfielder might be on his way soon.

No other current Posh player would get into that side, although new goalkeeper Alex Bass would have a chance, but there is no real disgrace in that. Posh have a lot of players who are just starting their journey in professional football.

Posh don’t buy oven-ready performers. They gamble on potential and youth. It didn’t work for most of last season as Posh finished 18th, the lowest third tier finish in the near 20-year MacAnthony era. They only finished above perennial strugglers Cobblers on goal difference. It was a shock to see so many of that squad retained, but, to be brutally honest, it’s been less of shock to see them fail to catch fire this summer. Many of them need to step up now.

Of course the newcomers might turn out to be world beaters, but right now, the 2025-26 squad looks even weaker than last season’s. Those who left London Road this summer – Kwame Poku, Hector Kyprianou, Malik Mothersille and Ricky-Jade Jones – would all start at Cardiff City on Saturday if they were still here.

But I actually like the Posh transfer policy of signing young and hungry performers rather than handing last contracts to 31 year-old journeymen like so many in our division. I also like the fact the club are starting to correct recent errors by handing newcomers long contracts thus lessening the chance of them running those deals down and leaving for nothing, if they turn out to be stars. The contract extension signed by Harley Mills this week is a big step in a positive direction.

But It’s also quite brave of Posh to double down on a signing policy that left them fretting about relegation for most of the second half of last season. The club must be confident the likes of Brandon Khela and Kyrell Lisbie will develop quickly and that possibility shouldn’t be ruled out. Like Lisbie, Ephron Mason-Clark was playing in the National League when Posh signed him and he didn’t turn out too bad. Khela has looked the part since signing in an apparent £500k deal from Birmingham City.

I also remember the all-star 2023-24 side losing to Peterborough Sports in a pre-season game. The current squad beat them 8-1.

I can also remember how good, and successful, Posh were the last time Kevin Russell was here to partner first-team manager Darren Ferguson so why am I worried Posh will finish closer to the relegation zone than the play-offs? The respective gaps were 5 points and 27 points at the end of last season, although a weaker division with less depth is a factor to offer hope a total calamity will be avoided.

Other clubs are throwing money around – Huddersfield Town impressively so – while Posh look set to start the season choosing between two strikers with 5 Football League goals between them.

Expectations within the fanbase have probably never been lower, certainly in recent times. This might actually help. Playing without pressure could free up young footballers.

Luck will play a part and it deserted Posh for a few months in the middle of last season. The injury news about Bass suggests Dame Fortune remains absent from the club.

With Bass, I’d be confident the defensive disasters that blighted the first half of 2024-25 would be seen less often. A central defensive pairing of Sam Hughes and David Okagbue has muscle. Playing three midfielders might also provide better protection.

But it’s all just guesswork at this stage and early games against big hitters Cardiff City and Luton Town might not provide many answers. In fact it could be the best time to play two teams with a relegation hangover, but who really knows?

Making predictions in July is a mug’s game.