Project to turn Peterborough United youngster into a striker 'excites' chairman Darragh MacAnthony

The Posh chairman has given his support to 20-year-old Ricky-Jade Jones and backed him to become a prolific central striker, a position he was not keen for coaches to divert him away from in the first place.

Posh welcomed Jones back into action after a two-match lay-off against Cheltenham on Tuesday night. Prior to his latest injury, he had put on a strong performance against Portsmouth and opened his account for the season.

Despite being dogged by a series on niggling injuries since breaking onto the first team stage in 2019, there are signs he is starting to recover quicker from knocks and the next time he steps on the pitch for Posh will be his 100th appearance for the club.

Speaking on his Hard Truth podcast, MacAnthony said: “He’s only 20 and I’m really excited. We’ve got a couple of options for that striker role and yes he can play wide and destroy teams down the left but the project that excites me is the staff turning him into a proper striker.

“Even by accident, he will score a lot of goals because of his pace and also create havoc and cause red cards.

“That’s where he started when he first came into our youth them before he was changed into a left winger. I didn’t agree with it.

“He was a striker at the age of 14, 15. We always knew he had electric pace but the way we started playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 he became a left-sided forward.

“He’s a striker, he’s now got physicality, he’s 6”1 and is one of the quickest players in the Football League. He can score goals and he can improve that as well. Craig Mackail-Smith at 22-23 couldn’t hit a barn door so whilst our fans may get frustrated, I think if we were to see him in a League Two team, we'd want to buy him.

“You look at his raw materials and I’d probably be paying a million quid for him in League Two as a project we could develop and sell to a top end Champ/Premier League team.

There’s so much upside to him. I’m convinced that if he played ten games in a row without injury or being dropped, he would come away with six or seven goals.

"Thank goodness he’s back quickly. Most people with that ankle injury would be out for a month but he’s coming back a lot quicker. I can see the changes and improvements in him all the time.

“People would say he’s made of glass two years ago but now he’s responding and coming back quicker. He’s played almost 100 games, which is a lot for someone people have said is always injured.

“Him with Malik and Jacob make me very excited about our strikers.”