Peterborough United boss: 'It's no good just developing players. We need to win something.'

But he is adamant he doesn’t want his staff’s development of some top young players to benefit any other club. He wants them to be successful at Posh first.

And there is increasing confidence in the Posh camp that the current squad will remain intact until the end of this season at least. The club are sticking to their plan of only selling an asset if there is a guarantee he will be loaned straight back for four months.

"This must be the most valuable squad we’ve had in terms of assets,” Ferguson insisted. “We’ve had big players like Ivan Toney and Dwight Gayle who have moved for big money, but we have six or seven like that now.

“I’ve been so pleased with how the entire squad has developed. Just look at the numbers for Kwame Poku and Ephron Mason-Clark, and for Ricky-Jade Jones since he moved to centre forward. And just look at how Hector Kyprianou has developed and how consistently good Harrison Burrows has become, and everyone knows how good Ronnie Edwards is.

"It’s a credit to the whole staff. We have a small staff, but we work well together. It’s been a real collective effort. I am excited about our future.

"But it’s no good just developing players. We need to win something. I don’t want to develop players only for them to be successful somewhere else.

"It is getting late in the transfer window now. It’s been open for weeks and players we thought might leave are still here. It’s now getting to the stage where if one goes we will find it hard to replace him so we are saying if anyone goes we need them back for the rest of the season.

“I don’t believe anything will happen now. Some of the clubs who want our players will want them now as we would in their position.

“There is always a chance a ridiculous offer will come in though and we have to remember we are a League One club.”