Joel Randall issue 'not as dramatic as everybody thinks, says Peterborough United owner Darragh MacAnthony

Randall was left out of the squad entirely for Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Birmingham and Tuesday’s 3-0 defeat at Wigan.

Instead of travelling to Wigan, Randall was sent to Barnsley to play for the under 21s.

Darren Ferguson revealed after the Birmingham game that Randall has been taken out of consideration for the first team squad at the moment due to a lack of application in training and the fact he has expressed his desire to leave the club.

Randall has struggled for form this season and hadn’t started either of the two previous league games before his bust-up with the Posh boss.

The continued situation is made more complicated by the fact that the 24-year-old only signed a new three-year contract in the summer that made him one of the club’s highest paid players.

The news has gone down poorly with the majority of Posh fans but MacAnthony took to X on Saturday night to defend his player and ask fans not to “overreact” to the situation and has continued his defence of the player on his Hard Truth podcast.

He said: “People don’t realise that this stuff goes on in football clubs every week.

“It will get cleaned up, it is not as dramatic as everybody thinks. Managers and players have fall outs all the time.

“The stories I could tell about some of our most famous players having fallouts with my hall of fame manager which end up being storm in teacups. Lee Tomlin, Paul Taylor…

“When you’re as good as my manager, you have this and you handle it in a certain way.

“Whether he’s trying to motivate the boy I don’t know but I don’t try and censor my manager and nor would I. I trust him so if he wants to come out and tell people what’s going on internally then no problem.

“Sometimes you moan when you don’t see enough of it. Sometimes you like a little bit of aggro indoors. Sometimes you need to see a little bit of passion.

“I don’t want to go into it more but we know how good Joel Randall is in League One. There’s a reason people wanted to buy him in the summer.

“He was one of the best offensive players last year, we have a certain style and he fits it.

“He needs to work hard, earn his way back in and make it right with the manager and his teammates.

“I don’t want our fans digging him out over stuff that goes on with every player.”

MacAnthony’s original X post read: “Honestly the comments… He was one of most productive players in League One offensively last season, hence two clubs bidding millions in summer.

"We lost enough players in summer hence keeping him.

“Everybody is overreacting to a storm in a tea cup.

"He will I’m sure play a big part in better days for club. There is no better presser in our system at 10 when in form and I’m sure he’ll regret what’s happened and kiss/make up with manager then go find his best form with support from our awesome fans who have been good to him last 12 months.

"Stick with him guys and let’s not over react.”