Twenty years at Peterborough United for Darragh MacAnthony, a tornado in human form....

Actually he was more like a tornado in human form. An unstoppable force with intense energy and passion. Posh hadn’t seen anything like this brash 31 year-old multi-millionaire Irishman before and it’s unlikely the club will see his like again. A personality enriched by huge financial success in the Spanish real estate market set about transforming a League Two club who had been treading water in the lower divisions for far too long.

It took MacAnthony under three years to take Posh into the Championship. A club that was used to drifting between the bottom half of League One and mid-table in League Two is now seen as a failure if those flits are not between the second and third tiers. That’s progress, more easily appreciated by those of us who sat and suffered through much of the 1980s.

It’s also true it’s taken under three years for one of the great Posh teams to turn into, well, what we are seeing now, a side that finds leaking goals far easier than scoring them, except in cup competitions. The decline shows little sign of reversing and much of the blame has been laid at the chairman’s door, but his 20-year legacy remains pretty strong. Restoring what was pretty much universal faith in him from the fanbase could be his biggest challenge yet, but he will have a go for sure. Putting a winning team together again would help.

It’s too simplistic to point out Posh are currently only 10 rungs in the EFL ladder better off 20 years on from MacAnthony’s arrival. Football is not an exact science. The sport has become bogged down by statistics. Events have to be taken into account. By his own admission MacAnthony lost over 50% of his net worth during a property crash in the middle of his Posh tenure and yet he’s still here fighting the good fight, investing personal cash into a club millions of pounds in debt.

This isn’t a hagiography though. It can’t be. It’s impossible to be perfect over a 20-year period in the turbulent world of football. MacAnthony has flaws, even if he’s reluctant to see them himself, but has never backed away from tough and bold decisions, many of which paid off, some didn’t.

MacAnthony has consistently raised the profile of his club and, it could be argued the city, even if, these days, watching a man who has overseen back-to-back disappointing League One campaigns opine on national media outlets with complete self-confidence on how his beloved Liverpool and the UK’s other huge clubs should go about their business, can seem surreal. It’s proof of a powerful personality and the gift of the gab if nothing else.

When I first bumped into, and started listening to, MacAnthony I felt it could be an exciting couple of years for Posh in the care of a man seemingly always in a hurry, before he’d move on to another project.

Predictions have never been my strong point and the title of the chairman’s auto-biographical book ‘From Hobby to Obsession’ told a better story. The limelight that came with his new role was possibly part of the appeal, but he has always worked relentlessly on behalf of the club with no personal financial reward.

MacAnthony is the man who helped to deliver ‘The Holy Trinity,’ great attacking football, four promotions, three of them into the Championship which yielded four seasons in the second tier, double the number Posh had enjoyed in the previous 46 years.

There have also been three Wembley wins, an unforgettable afternoon at Old Trafford, the arrival from nowhere of the most successful manager in the club’s history, the first million pound signing and five more since, and the club’s longest stretch outside the basement Football League Division by some distance (it’s 19 seasons now, and the previous Posh record had been 7 back in the 1960s).

MacAnthony also invested heavily in the Academy which has yielded Harrison Burrows and Bolu Shofowoke. He promised ‘Operation Vengeance’ in anger at the farce of the Covid-interrupted season and it was a roaring success rewarded by an instant promotion.

But MacAnthony has also overseen three relegations (albeit all from the Championship) and his appointment of managers that weren’t called Darren Ferguson has been dreadful. a trend the current incumbent is struggling to correct.

Finding Ferguson was a masterstroke, but taking punts on Mark Cooper and Dave Robertson among others proved to be terrible gambles. Managers confident in their own ability, and with impressive bodies of work, like Gary Johnson and Steve Evans, were both sacked when challenging for play-off places in League One which led to suspicions of personality clashes with a demanding owner. Success followed both decisions though so MacAnthony’s judgement was more than sound.

But that first million pound signing was Tyrone Barnett who cost Posh about £110k a goal. Mo Eisa and Joel Randall were other expensive flops.

It’s recruitment decisions that now prompt most of the criticism aimed at the chairman. Some believe the man who helped turn non-league players into millionaires appears to have lost some of his magic, although Kyrell LIsbie might disagree.

Some of his social media outbursts towards his paying customers have also been cringeworthy. He might want to reflect on that and bite his tongue more readily, especially now he’s an EFL board member.

MacAnthony often doesn’t appear as thick-skinned as he claims to be. Lashing out on his Hard Truth podcast at the press recently was a low point. He can say the media is rubbish and wrong, but to say results don’t matter to local men was just crazy. His own foray into journalism was unsuccessful as a football magazine folded after 11 editions.

His podcast can be a force for good though. MacAnthony’s passion and eloquence are made for it. His insights into the transfer market, agents, players and other clubs can be fascination, although his ability to inspire confidence with bold predictions has been on the wane recently.

Deep down I suspect MacAnthony has regrets. Not working with partners was a business mantra he must wish he’d stuck to after joining forces with Canadian investors. The club is still paying for that mistake now. The possibility of a new stadium was Darragh daring to dream, but always seemed fanciful.

It’s part of football folklore that MacAnthony bought Posh for a nominal £1 after watching ‘Big Ron Manager,’ a TV programme that delivered more embarrassment than entertainment.

How his London Road journey will end is anyone’s guess, but being careful what you wish for is something his biggest critics still need to heed.