The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
George gives his insight into that infamous failed ‘eye test’
Posh - Club great recalls the high and lows of the first half of 2013
Posh star George Boyd has finally given some insight into the infamous failed eye test which scuppered a dream move to Nottingham Forest seven years ago.
The decision by Forest to pull the plug on the transfer 30 minutes before the January window shut devastated Boyd and caused friction between the clubs’ respective chairmen.
Boyd was sent back to Posh, but landed on his feet as later that year he joined Hull City on loan and immediately helped them win promotion to the Premier League.
Boyd recalled: “I’d been on loan at Forest a couple of seasons earlier when it was obvious manager Billy Davies didn’t want me.
“David Pleat was their director of football and he was the one who pushed that move through, but it was a waste of time and I only played five or six times.
“They reached the playoffs, but I didn’t play and they lost to Blackpool in the semifinal.
“Then one transfer deadline day (2013) Posh agreed fees with Forest and Crystal Palace and I felt ready to make a step up.
“It was a tough choice as Palace was my boyhood club, but we’d just moved to Nassington so I chose Forest as it was nearer and we had a young baby. I went for the medical and did all the scans on the knee, brain etc and was then told to hang around.
“Then at 9.30pm the Forest chairman told me I had to take an eye test and I had to take it without my contact lenses in! I said that’s silly as I can’t see properly without them, but they made me anyway.
“At 10.30pm they told me they couldn’t sign me because of my eyes and I was in pieces. I rang Darragh MacAnthony and he was brilliant with me to be fair.
“He told me I’d always have a place at Posh and I played for them on the Saturday.
“The eye test nonsense was all down to Billy Davies as he was set to return as Forest manager and clearly didn’t fancy me. I joined Hull a couple of months later so it all worked out for the best.”
It certainly did and Boyd even scored for Hull against Forest at the KC Stadium that season and famously celebrated by mocking the ‘eye test’ excuse.
Posh signed Boyd for a then non-league record £265k in January, 2007 and he racked up 297 appearances and 75 goals before he moved to Hull.
Boyd also played in the Premier League for Burnley before returning to London Road in the summer from Sheffield Wednesday.
The 34 year-old has yet to catch fire in his second spell at Posh, but he remains fit and ready to go if the 2019-20 season is ever allowed to resume.
“I came back here to get back to the Championship,” Boyd stated. “Nothing has changed.”