Posh have turned down multiple offers for top scorer Clarke-Harris as Scottish giants and Premier League clubs prepare to make summer bids

Fry was responding to various reports in the last 24 hours linking Clarke-Harris to Scottish champions Rangers Premier League strugglers Sheffield United and West Brom, and Championship side Bournemouth.

Fry admitted Bournemouth were very interested in Clarke-Harris in the last transfer window. Posh signed the 27-goal striker from League One rivals Bristol Rovers for close to a million pounds in the summer.

Fry said: “There were several Championship clubs chasing Jonson in January and Bournemouth were the most persistent. We had several offers for the player, but we turned them down flat, even though we could probably get five times what we paid for him.

“We want promotion this season so there’s no way we would have let him go. It was the same situation with Ivan Toney last season. We could have sold him in January, but we were never going to. The owners have done great to resist cashing in at a time when football clubs are struggling financially.

“Rangers have been to a lot of our matches this season and they were there on Saturday (they saw Clarke-Harris score a hat-trick in a 7-0 win over Accrington). Sheffield United were also there, but West Brom weren’t.

“I didn’t have a conversation about Jonson with any of them though.

“Like with Ivan, we don’t have a single concern that transfer talk will affect Jonson. He is single-minded and his focus is entirely on winning promotion with us.

“He’s a humble man who constantly gives the praise to his teammates.”

Clarke-Harris signed a four year contract at Posh in the summer. He can’t leave Posh before the end of the season.

Rangers have also been linked with star Posh forward Siriki Dembele.