Peterborough United to sell 'best players' as Darren Ferguson to lead a complete reset

Darren Ferguson will be leading Peterborough United in a new direction, which will include developing young players and selling the top talent currently at the club.
Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson hugs Jack Taylor and Jonson Clarke-Harris. Both could be leaving in the summer. Photo: Joe Dent.Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson hugs Jack Taylor and Jonson Clarke-Harris. Both could be leaving in the summer. Photo: Joe Dent.
Peterborough United manager Darren Ferguson hugs Jack Taylor and Jonson Clarke-Harris. Both could be leaving in the summer. Photo: Joe Dent.

Ferguson set out his vision on Thursday after he was appointed Posh boss on a permanent basis- on a three-year contract- after initially joining for a fourth spell in January, initially until the end of the season.

He was able to lead the side into the play-offs on the final day before falling short against Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals, despite taking a 4-0 lead to Hillsborough.

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That 5-1 defeat and subsequent loss on penalties looks set to be the final Posh game for the majority of the current squad.

Ferguson said: “I sat down with the chairman and we had a good conversation. I gave him my ideas about how I see the club moving forward, he gave me his and they are both aligned. After that, it was an easy decision.

“There has to be a reset and a focus on the young players and on the medium and long term rather than the short. It doesn’t mean we can’t be successful in the short term but the expectations have to be realistic and that might mean not saying ‘Peterborough are going to go and smash League One next season’ because that’s probably not going to happen.

"With young players you get inconsistencies. The fans have to be aware of that but the club is in good hands.

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“We are going to go younger with the squad, quite a lot of the squad that are here now will not be when the season starts if possible. It was pivotal in my decision, I have to be motivated; it had to be a complete refresh. Every three or four years there needs to be a freshness- either the manager moves on or the players need to change.

“We’re obviously going to be selling our best players if we can agree fees. Jack Taylor and Ronnie Edwards are the obvious ones and there’s one or two players in that group who have requested to go on the transfer list.

“It’s exciting for me to develop these younger players and put them in a position in one or two year’s time to be really equipped. We do want to be a Championship club but that may take a little bit longer than normal.

“The young players we have need to be coached, to learn how we want to work day-to-day. We’ve got some very, very good young players at the club. We want to add younger players, some of them might not be the finished article but we’re ok with that, we’ll give them time to develop.

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"We’ll add one or two experienced players, we’ll need that, especially if we’re going to be losing a large group of players with experience. My strengths lay on the grass in developing and improving young players and that’s what I need to do and we’ll see how far we can go.

“I don’t want to go down the route of bringing in young loan players from Premier League clubs, not where I feel we’ve got our own young player. The aim for the next period- you want to be competitive to a degree- but we want to be developing players.”

Ferguson will be joined next year by all of his current coaching staff, who have agreed contracts in line with his own and the team have already begun to draw up targets.

Much of the club’s summer business will depend on the shape of pre-season though when the young players currently at the club will be given the chance to earn their place in the first-team squad.

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Ferguson added: “My conversation with Will (Blackmore) was, if I do stay, you will have the opportunity to be my number one. We’ll then act accordingly and either bring in someone else if we think he’s not ready or someone else beneath him. We won’t do anything on that until July. He’s got real potential. We’ll give him every help we can to claim that number one spot.

People like Joel Randall, he needs a run of games in the team and pre-season is the opportunity. Manu Fernandez could be anything but he’ll have pre-season to prove to me he can step into the first team. Charlie O’Connell is very dependable and reliable, there’s Aaron Powell; we’ll assess them and they’ll either come into the first team or go out and get games on loan.

“The chairman and I have been together for many years and it’s been a massive success, why would you want to change it just for the sake of it? Fans need to get their head around that we’ve been very successful together, we’re going a slightly different way this time, which I think they’ll be pleased to hear.”

Posh are set to release their retained list on Friday morning.