Peterborough United owner assures fans some 'very good' players will arrive in August

Time is running out for Posh to reinforce their squad ahead of the opening game of the EFL season on Saturday as they travel to face Bristol Rovers in the EFL Cup first round.

Any new signings must arrive before midday on Friday to be able to play at Bristol Rovers.

Owura Edwards and Evan Weir officially became Posh players on July 1, even though they were announced prior, and no player has arrived since.

MacAnthony appeared on Tuesday afternoon (August 4) TalkSPORT to talk about a number of national sports stories but did also chat a few things Posh; clearly frustrated by the criticism about Posh’s lack of business to date.

He told fans that Posh were chasing targets and that he expected the pace of the transfer marker to pick up across the EFL now that August has arrived.

He also told fans that Tom O’Connor and Sam Hughes were fit and ready for the new season as well as outlining the circumstances in which he’d be willing to walk away from Posh when talking about the success of the likes of Bournemouth, Brentford and Coventry in going through the leagues to reach the Premier League.

Darragh on transfers: “They are out with pitchforks. It is really frustrating because fans are accusing me are accusing me of losing my nerve in terms of signing players because of maybe a bad window a couple of years ago. They are accusing us of not doing it because of money.

"Yes, we are actively trying to sign players but there are players we want and there are players we maybe want but the ones we want, we don’t want to skip and go to the next plan. We haven’t had no’s from the ones we want and we feel very confident but we have had to wait for four weeks for various reasons.

“If we sign them, I can talk about the reasons why. They are not reasons from our club or me but to do with tours, teams bringing in their own players before others can go out. I’ve been working non-stop. I’m confident we will get signings, obviously our fans think we don’t have any players, which is the way it goes.

“It’s probably the longest we’ve gone without signing a player. That’s causing some anxiety and pitchforks are out on podcasts. We will be signing some very good players.

“A lot of clubs in League One and Two, it’s loan city, you are just seeing loans. The Prem teams have come back from tours and the young players are being released to go out on loan. You’re not seeing massive amounts of signings. The trickle effect hasn’t really started yet but I think it will ramp up.

“It will be a busier August then ever before. There’s a long way to go, the season hasn’t started yet. The tree hasn’t even got shaking yet. That tree will get shaking now with a lot of Premier League clubs arriving back, players are going to be available, Championship clubs will then sell players and make them available. It’s just a trickle down effect and it will happen.”

On the centre-backs: “Two of our main central defenders, who are the highest paid players at out club, haven’t played all pre-season but they are fit and ready for next week.”

On when he would sell the club: “I sold half of them (shares) a few years ago and in hindsight, that was a mistake. I have some minority partners now and they are good guys.

"I have always dreamt that if I can get Peterborough into the Championship and keep them there for two years, then I’d probably then find someone with deeper pockets to take the club and stadium on to the next level.

"When you can’t put yourself in that position, you go down a different route, you look at you academy. If somebody walked in tomorrow with an incredible plan to take Peterborough to a different level to I ever have and surpass the four promotions and three cup wins at Wembley I’ve had then I’d hand the keys over and get my money back and probably make a few quid. After 20 years of putting my money id, I’d deserve to.”