Peterborough United chairman believes Norwich City will be back for Fernandez as deadline day bids for other players are revealed

MacAnthony admits he was gobsmacked by the 23 year-old centre-back’s decision to turn down a move to the Canaries towards the end of the January transfer window. The chairman insists the deal offered by the Championship was ‘fabulous’ for the club and the player. The PT was told a £2.5 million offer was on the table, but neither club has confirmed this.

MacAnthony believes the player was nervous about making a big step up so early in his career. Fernandez, who is 6ft 6”, has started just 26 EFL games for Posh after joining the club from non-league Ramsgate in June, 2021.

MacAnthony spoke about the collapsed deal and deadline day bids for forwards Ricky-Jade Jones and Kwame Poku, plus midfielder Hector Kyprianou on today’s (Wednesday) edition of his Hard Truth podcast.

“We accepted a deal offered by Norwich for Manny,” MacAnthony revealed. “It was a fabulous deal for us and the player which involved him coming back to us on loan for the rest of the season. Norwich are a very progressive club who buy lower league talent and develop them. Manny would have gone there in the summer, benefited from their coaching and played in their first team for a season before moving to somewhere like Brentford. He’s a Brentford-type centre-half, big and strong.

"But it blew my mind and the mind of my gaffer when Manny and his brothers turned the deal down. Manny had suffered a concussion just before the offer was made and I assumed he was still suffering from it. I drove down to the training ground and spoke to him. I told him Norwich are one of the best clubs in the Championship and what a massive opportunity it was for him. Barry Fry told me we’d sold five players to them in the past and they’d all gone on to win promotions, but I believe Manny was nervous and that it was too soon for him.

"Norwich became irritated and I don’t blame them. Manny’s had a lot of grief in his life in the last 18 months, but I believe Norwich will try again in the summer. At 23 he’s a magnificent prospect. He has all the attributes needed to have a great career. He wins everything in the air, 80% of his headers in fact which is way above average, and he can play out with the ball. With the right coaching and improvement he can be like Ethan Pinnock and James Tarkowski who made their way up the leagues to the top.

“Manny was the only one we expected to sell on deadline day. We did have five bids from Championship clubs for Ricky, but he didn’t want to go to them which is his prerogative. He will go for millions in the summer.

"We also had a good offer for Kwame of £3 million plus £3 million in add ons from a Championship club about 45 minutes before the deadline. Why they left it so late I don’t know, but we were only selling him if he was loaned straight back. The club were being clever though as they know 20 clubs will be trying to sign him in the summer so they were trying to get ahead. There would have been a lot more interest in Kwame if he hadn’t picked up his injury. When he was fit and playing a team like Burnley planned to make an offer in January, but they needed someone who was playing.

"There was a bid for Hector late on, but he wanted to stay and help the club which is fine. He will leave in the summer.”

Jones, Poku and Kyprianou are all out of contract in the summer, but Posh can command fees for the first two on account of their age.