Peterborough United chairman is ready to deliver an ‘historic’ season with the best squad he’s seen since the days of the ‘Holy Trinity’

MacAnthony insists promotion back to the Championship after a seven-year absence is the number one item on the club’s agenda.

MacAnthony and co-owners Stewart ‘Randy’ Thompson and Dr Jason Neale have backed manager Darren Ferguson by funding eight new transfers including a club record £1.3 million capture of striker Mo Eisa.

“You spend over a million pound on a player because you want promotion,” MacAnthony stated. “We are not messing about here.

“We have massive aspirations and ambitions We want to deliver an historic season for our fans and we believe we can.

“We have a squad full of character, flair, grit and determination. We have characters and we have great balance and we will have a potent partnership up top.”

MacAnthony certainly hasn’t been this excited about a squad since the days of the club’s ‘Holy Trinity’.

Posh won three promotions with Craig Mackail-Smith, Aaron Mclean and George Boyd in the squad so it’s fair to say MacAnthony is confident a successful season in League One is on the way, under the club’s most successful manager.

“I am excited by the potential in this squad,” MacAnthony, who watched Posh beat St Mirren 2-0 in a friendly in La Manga last weekend, said. “I haven’t been this excited since the days of the ‘trinity.’

“We’ve recruited well, we have some exciting young players and we have the manager who will bring the best out of them.

“We’ve strengthened what we needed to strengthen and don’t forget last season’s squad was good enough to finish seventh anyway.

“We have pace up top in Mo Eisa and we have sorted out the issues we had at left-back. We have good competition for places.

“Dan Butler is an absolute machine at left-back. I haven’t seen anyone get past him in training and he goes up and down the pitch delivering great crosses.

“He’s usually good for 60 games a season and will be the best left-back we’ve had since Charlie Lee.

“Mark Beevers is commanding at the back, we have an excellent sweeper-keeper in Christy Pym and many goals up top.

“The manager also loves what Idris Kanu can bring to the squad and youngsters Harrison Burrows and Kyle Barker showed their quality at the weekend. Barker was our best player against St Mirren in my opinion.

“I can’t wait to see what Darren gets out of Siriki Dembele this season either. The injury that kept him out for seven weeks cost us the play-offs. He frightens teams with his pace and his skill level.

“He lives life correctly as well. He lives and breathes football. He just needs to realise that beating three players is enough. You don’t need to go back and beat them again.

“He reminds me of Raheem Sterling as a quick, gifted player who needed to improve his finishing.

“If (first-team coach) Aaron Mclean can improve Siriki in front of goal we will have one hell of a player on our hands.”