Peterborough United chairman predicts a fascinating race for League One honours and names the player he was surprised Posh managed to sign

And the man who has given every recent season a subtitle like the ‘Vengeance Tour’ and the ‘Greatest Show on Turf’ has decided the coming year will be the ‘You’ll Never Win Anything With Kids’ campaign, a reference to his club’s commitment to building a young team. Pundit Alan Hansen famously used the phrase about a past Manchester United side that went on to run away with top-flight honours.

"I see a typical League One this season,” MacAnthony, who is also acting as joint CEO with co-owner Dr Jason Neale, told the Posh Plus service at the end of a week’s training at St George’s Park. “There are teams that shouldn’t be in it as they should be playing higher, there are fallen giants wanting to rebuild and there are teams like Bolton doing great business.

"There are teams like Wigan who will start on -8 points, but who will want to prove themselves in front of a new owner and Joey Barton seems to have the bit between his teeth at Bristol Rovers as they are having a go wages-wise.

"Portsmouth are re-tooling like us and have made some good signings, while Derby County are also like us as they have a triple promotion-winner from League One as their manager.

“And the teams coming up from League Two will be competitive and then there’s Reading who could be anything.

"It’s not the League One your grandparents knew and I can’t call it other than it will be fascinating and exciting.

"I’d love us to be spectacular on the pitch and very quiet off it after all the issues from last season which became exhausting.

"The last time we had a pre-season at St George’s Park we went on to win promotion.

"It’s not cheap as it’s cost us £50-60K, but it’s been a great week for the players and the staff.

"The players are all quietly confident. I’m loving the atmosphere in the group and one thing’s for sure they will run all day for each other.

"We’ve signed good players. A lot of people were surprised we managed to pick up Archie Collins and Romoney Crichlow is the left-sided centre-back we’ve needed for a while.

"We want the players to play with freedom, to work hard and for the fans to help them through the bad times.

"The players have the perfect coaching staff and we have a captain in Ephron Mason-Clark who has the respect of the squad.

"Ephron would still be the same man if Real Madrid came in to sign him.”