Peterborough United chairman insists it’s been a productive transfer window for his club, bids for Szmodics and Beevers turned down and why there was no ‘mystery’ signing to replace Dembele

The Posh co-owners, from left, Dr Jason Neale, Darragh MacAnthony and Stewart 'Randy' Thompson.

Posh made six new signings - Steven Benda, Hayden Coulson, Jeando Fuchs, Callum Morton, Reece Brown and Bali Mumba - with Siriki Dembele the only significant departure.

MacAnthony revealed Posh turned down bids for forward Sammie Szmodics and centre-back Mark Beevers as well as wantaway midfielder Oliver Norburn on transfer deadline day yesterday.

“It has been a productive window for us,” MacAnthony stated. “The owners are trying hard. We’ve signed six players and we turned down bids for Sammie and the club captain (Beevers) from a club near the top of League One. We didn’t want anyone else to leave.

Kwame Poku in action for Posh against Sheffield United on Saturday. Photo: Joe Dent/theposh.com.

“Jeando drove through the night for seven hours with his wife and young child just so he could register for us in time to play on Saturday. That’s the sort of commitment we want at this club in our situation.

“Hayden Coulson gives us strength in depth down the left and we’d loved to have signed Reece Brown in the summer, but we couldn’t get the deal done.

“This is the squad now. This is where we are and what we have. This is not a rallying call, but the players need to get together, get their heads down and work hard to keep us in the Championship.

“The management team are working so hard and I felt for them on Saturday with so many players out injured and all the noise around Norburn and Dembele going on.

“I know some will be disappointed Dembele has left and we haven’t delivered a ‘mystery’ signing to replace him, but those players aren’t interested in coming to a relegation fight which they believe, from the outside, is already lost.

“If we were near the top of League One I’d be able to make two or three signings that would blow your socks off.

“But we have a lot of faith in Kwame Poku and Joel Randall. Kwame has shown he has plenty to give on and off the ball. We thought it would take him four months to get up to speed, but we didn’t expect Joel to suffer so much with injuries.”