Reasons for Peterborough United fans to be cheerful despite the loss of star players
I see the sale of Ronnie Edwards and the probable departure of Harrison Burrows has prompted the Peterborough United doom mongers to surface on social media.
It’s a fact the departure of that pair, plus the loss of Josh Knight and Ephron Mason-Clark will test the skills of Posh first-team manager Darren Ferguson and his staff.
It’s also true the pressure is now on a recruitment team led by chairman Darragh MacAnthony to find the players capable of sustaining another push for promotion from League One.
But the sale of gifted young Posh players this summer is a compliment to that recruitment team.
And who’s to say the replacements for Knight, Mason-Clark and Burrows aren’t already in the building. For instance Chris Conn-Clarke and Cian Hayes were both playing National League football last season which is exactly where Mason-Clark was before he came to Posh.
It’s probably not luck that in the last four years two players have travelled from the National League to the top two divisions of English football via London Road. It could easily happen again. Certainly the new players will be given every chance to thrive at Posh.
And it’s also worth remembering Posh have held on to the best central midfield pair in League One, Archie Collins and Hector Kyprianou, and some who excelled last year like Kwame Poku, Joel Randall and Malik Mothersille are still here with every chance they will improve further.
Posh were the top scorers in the division last season and have lost only Mason-Clark from the first-choice starting players from an exciting forward line.
Judging by the comments of Darren Ferguson before he took his team to Spain on Sunday afternoon, a few more newcomers are in the pipeline anyway.
Incidentally here’s one footnote from Ronnie Edwards, Posh and the transfer negotiations involved when buying and selling him.
Brentford offered Barnet £700k for Edwards when the player was 16, but Posh persuaded the National League to let him come to London Road for nothing in return for a 50% share of any future transfer. The financial issues caused by Covid prompted the unusual arrangement agreed by both clubs.
Barnet deserve to profit from the brilliance of Edwards by receiving £1.5 million of the £3 million Southampton are paying for him, and Posh still stand to make millions more if the player progresses as quickly and as successfully as we all hope and expect.