Peterborough United turned down transfer deadline day bids from League One promotion chasers Sunderland and Oxford United
Peterborough United director of football Barry Fry has revealed Sunderland and Oxford United tried to take players away from London Road on transfer deadline day.
Sunderland made late bids for centre-back Mark Beevers and Oxford were keen on forward Sammie Szmodics, but Posh refused to let anyone else leave once it became obvious Siriki Dembele was on his way.
Fry stated both players wanted to leave, but are now happy to help Posh fight against relegation from the Championship.
Fry said: “Oxford manager Karl Robinson rang me, the manager and the chairman about Sammie, while Sunderland started making silly bids for Beevers on deadline day with a couple of hours of the window left. They then made a reasonable offer 15 minutes before the window closed, but by then we had promised the manager no more players would leave and we stood firm.
“The players were disappointed, but I’ve seen them since and they will give their all for us.”
Szmodics and Beevers were key men in the Posh promotion from League One last season, but have struggled at Championship level.
Szmodics has scored just twice - in the same game against former club Bristol City - in 14 starts. Beevers has started 13 of the 27 Championship matches. He suffered a bad hamstring injury in August.