Peterborough United comment: Six new signings required and Barry Fry’s reaction when asked about Dwight Gayle

A goalkeeper to compete with the admirable Dai Cornell is a must, but two athletic wing-backs (as it looks like that’s the way the chairman and manager want to play), a box-to-box midfielder (how often do Posh midfielders get into the penalty area? Hardly ever is the answer), and two forwards to play with Siriki Dembele.

When I asked Posh director of football Barry Fry earlier this week if there was a chance of a Dwight Gayle-like signing to inspire the current team as the quality striker had lifted the 2012-13 side he laughed and said: ‘you ever know,’ but it is probably wishful thinking.

Posh have, for them, a dreadful 17 goals in 20 games and Jonson Clarke-Harris and Sammie Szmodics have had their chances to shine, so Posh must look elsewhere while hoping they rediscover their best form. It’s fanciful to expect relative rookies Ricky-Jade Jones or Joel Randall to score regularly this season.

Posh will probably need to get rid of players in order to bring better ones in, but I assume Conor Coventry will be recalled by West Ham given his lack of game time at London Road. The lengthy pursuit of the midfielder in the summer now seems like a waste of time and energy.

There seems very little chance of the current squad winning their relegation battle so the recruitment in January needs to be far more successful than it was in the summer.

I must confess I felt close-season arrivals Josh Knight (as a centre-back) and midfielder Jorge Grant would have delivered much more than so far seen, but signing players from non-league and League Two seemed optimistic at the time and there has been little evidence to the contrary.

Posh have also stayed too loyal to players who helped the club to promotion from League One.

Posh stayed faithful in the Championship to far better players like ‘The Holy Trinity’ after back-to-back promotions in the early years under the current chairman and manager and it backfired then as well.