Maddison release clause is activated, but he isn’t going anywhere for now

Marcus Maddison and Jack Marriott will start playing for Posh soon if they are not sold.

Bids keep flying in for the pair, but none that Posh have deemed acceptable.

Maddison has even seen his seven-figure release clause activated by two Championshipclubs,butPosh are not happy with the way the potential purchasers want to structure the payments.

Posh director of football Barry Fry, the man in charge of transfer negotiations at the ABAX Stadium, said: “The clubs want to spread the payments over three years and that’s not acceptable to us.

“The terms of the clause in Marcus’s contract insist the payment must be paid in full for the activation of the release fee to lead to a departure.

“We have had plenty of bids for Jack as well, but a lot of the clubs interested need to sell before they can buy.

“I’m surprised there hasn’t been more transfer activity this season because the transfer window closes early this year, but I guess many clubs are struggling financially as well as fighting against financial fairplay.

“We have kept both Jack and Marcus out of the firing line to protect them, but the season is only three weeks way now so they will need to start thinking about match fitness.”

Posh boss Steve Evans is prepared to take the pair to the club’s training camp in Portugal next week, but they probably won’t be available for Saturday’s friendly at St Neots.

“If Jack and Marcus are still with us at the start of the season we’d be foolish not to be using them,” Evans said. “They will need match practice anyway. I’d be happy to take them to Portugal.”