Peterborough United striker with a £750k price tag

The 27 year-old has been the subject of persistent interest from League One rivals Portsmouth who have seen a bid of £500k rejected, according to Posh director of football Barry Fry.

Fry also revealed that local rivals MK Dons enquired about Godden, but have predictably been put off by the price tag on a player who scored 18 goals in his first season at Posh last term.

Godden has discussed his immediate future with first-team boss Darren Ferguson this week.

“Matt wants regular first-team football at his age,” Fry said. “That’s what he told the manager and it’s understandable, but we don’t really want him to go. We think in Mo Eisa, Ivan Toney and Matt we have forwards who will score plenty of goals between them.

“Portsmouth were keen, but we turned their bid of £500k down because we want £750k. MK Dons also enquired about him. but they didn’t go as far as making a bid.”

Posh are thought to have paid Stevenage around £400k for Godden last summer. He started last season well, scoring two minutes into the first game of the season, and netting 14 of his 18 goals before Christmas.

His form dipped in the second-half of the season with Ferguson often opting to play Toney as a sole striker. It’s thought Toney and Eisa, a club record signing at £1.3 million, will be Ferguson’s first-choice forward pairing next season.

Fry is also working hard on bringing two new midfielders to the club.

“We’ve secured all our top targets apart from the midfielders,” Fry added.

“We’ve suffered a couple of knockbacks, but talks are ongoing.

“We’d like to complete the squad before we fly to Spain next week, but that might not happen now. We’ll keep working on it though.”