Peterborough United received over £5 million for Ephron Mason-Clark, even with a hefty reduction

And that includes a £750,000 reduction as part of the deal to send the 24 year-old back to Posh on loan for the rest of the season.

Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony refused to sanction the transfer without an immediate return clause. Coventry resisted that part of the deal for most of deadline day before accepting the terms.

Mason-Clark’s old club Barnet are entitled to a cut of the transfer fee, but nowhere near as much as the Covid-influenced 50% they will get from any future sale of Ronnie Edwards.

MacAnthony revealed on his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast the National League club will be receiving a seven-figure payment.

It represents a huge profit for Posh who are thought to have paid Barnet just £200k for Mason-Clark in August 2022.

Mason-Clark’s deal will become even more profitable for Posh if the player and his new club achieve success over the length of his four year contract with the Sky Blues. As is usual Coventry will also the initial fee over that four year period.

The sizeable fee probably helped MacAnthony reject big bids for other players, notably a £2.5 million offer for influential midfielder Hector Kyprianou which the chairman has now revealed came from Watford.

MacAnthony said: "We turned down £2.5 million from a top eight Championship club for Hector, and we’ve been told Premier League clubs will be after him in the summer

"There were also bids for Harrison Burrows and Ronnie Edwards, but they were rejected as well. There were bids for Harrison from both sides of the England/Scotland border.

"A top Championship club bid for him two days before Christmas and again in the New Year, but Harrison is certainly not angling for a move even though he would earn a lot more money.”

Celtic are believed to be the Scottish club that bid for Burrows.

A bid for Edwards arrived too late for Posh who had been working overtime on the Mason-Clark deal.

"We must have had more bids for our players than any other club on deadline day,” MacAnthony added.

"There was a lot of stress with the Ephron deal. We went backwards and forwards all day and I had seven hours on a plane with no wifi.

"We offered them two scenarios. A bigger fee which meant they could have Ephron straight away or a smaller fee if they sent him back on loan. We had replacements in mind for Ephron, but we couldn’t get them so the loan deal became a must for us.

"We knocked £750K off the price to get Ephron back for the rest of the season, but the fee is more than the £3.5 million I saw quoted. Coventry are also interested in more of our players so they have an option on them.

“But the most important thing is I kept a promise to my manager that we would finish the window with all the players that have got us this high up in the league.

"We didn’t want to upset the applecart as far as the existing squad was concerned."

MacAnthony will now sell Edwards in the summer.