Peterborough United’s Barry Fry believes the transfer market will recover quickly once the coronavirus crisis has passed, but his chairman is not so sure

Chairman MacAnthony believes the market could turn to the advantage of clubs like Posh and players like Ivan Toney because of the likelihood of less lavish spending.

But director of football Fry, while agreeing there could be a lull in spending for a while, believes the transfer market will soon be awash with cash again.

MacAnthony said: “When this is all over the transfer market could well benefit lower league clubs.

“At the moment Premier League clubs might have someone like Ivan Toney as third option behind players from say Spain and Italy.

“But I doubt there will be as much money flying around next season so they might instead start looking at players in the £5 million to £15 million price range which brings Ivan to the top of their list.

“It will be much hotter market around those sorts of players. It could take the transfer market at the top end two-to-three years to catch up.”

Fry countered: “People said the transfer market would be depressed forever after the Bosman ruling came into effect.

“Well there was a lull for a little while, but it wasn’t long before huge amounts of money were being spent on players again.

“I expect the same to happen again, that is a short lull and then the clubs will start paying crazy money out again.

“Clubs will always want the best players and they will pay whatever it takes to get them.

“It’s the way of the world I’m afraid.

“This is a unique situation now though and there are a lot of worried football people out there because we don’t know what our sport will look like when this is all over.

“I do know I am pleased that Posh are owned by three people with the expertise and commitment to make sure our club comes out the other side in relatively good order. I’m certainly glad I don’t own the club any more!

“We’ve had to furlough some non-playing staff, but the board have made sure not a single one of them will be out of pocket.”

* The Bosman ruling enabled footballers to leave a club on a free transfer at the end of a contract.

* Barry Fry owned Posh for a turbulent couple of years in the 1990s.