The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Ivan transfer shock:
Ivan Toney asked to leave Posh last January, the Peterborough Telegraph can reveal.
Toney became aware of interest from Championship clubs during the last transfer window, but Posh declined his request and insisted he continued to help them in their quest for promotion from League One.
And the top Posh officials were delighted by Toney’s reaction to the club’s decision, praising his attitude in a campaign that was ultimately scuppered by the coronavirus crisis.
Posh director of football Barry Fry said: “Ivan wanted to leave once he became aware of interest from higher-level clubs.
“He asked me if he could leave, he asked the chairman and he asked the manager. His agents were pushing as well.
“And fair play to the club owners as they turned down Ivan’s request because they did not want to short-change the fans as letting him go would have meant giving up on promotion.
“And fair play to Ivan as well because, although he must have been disappointed, he still turned up for training every day with a smile on his face and he gave everything he had for the club in training and in matches.
“His attitude before, during and after the transfer window never changed. He is a very professional young man and he now deserves a big move. We promised him we would let him go if we didn’t reach the Championship and we will stick to our word.
“Our stance might backfire on us a little with the fee we receive, but we remain confident it won’t.”
Championship promotion hopefuls Brentford led the interest in Toney in January, while second tier title favourites Leeds United also made an enquiry, but their interest cooled when they were quoted the price for a striker who scored 49 goals in 94 appearances for Posh.
Former club Newcastle United will receive a healthy sell-on fee when Toney does leave Posh.
Peterborough United are expecting big things from their young players in the 2020-21 League One season.
So much so that 10 of them will start pre-season training on Monday, July 6 several weeks before the rest of the firstteam squad, at a cost of £50k to the club.
It’s the brainchild of coowner Darragh MacAnthony who believes the 10 players Idris Kanu at 20 is the oldest - will benefit from some oneon-one tuition from first-team manager Darren Ferguson.
The players involved are Kanu, Serhat Tasdemir, RickyJade Jones, Flynn Clarke, Harrison Burrows, Kyle Barker, Sam Cartrwight, Bobby Copping, Archie Jones and Bradley Rolt.
Rolt and Archie Jones have signed one-year pro deals after emerging from the club’s Academy.
The players, Ferguson, plus one coach and sports science staff will be taken off furlough to enable them to take part in the project.
The club will pay for Covid-19 testing twice a week for all involved, while the training ground will be upgraded to to ensure all facilities meet the standards required to thwart the coronavirus.
Training will take place daily. A date for the senior players to return to training will be set when the club knows when the new campaign will start.
The EFL were due to discuss a start date with clubs yesterday (Wednesday).
MacAnthony was unavailable for comment, but confirmed the story is accurate.
It’s futher proof of the desire of the club’s co-owners MacAnthony, Dr Jason Neale and Stewart ‘Randy’ Thompson to start playing football again.
The partners believe that several of the 10 young players will be permanent fixtures in the Posh first-team squad this season.
Tasdemir, Kanu, RickyJade Jones, Archie Jones, Barker, Burrows, Copping and Cartwright have all tasted first-team football, but only fleetingly in most cases.
Posh have high hopes for Clarke who signed a two-anda-half year contract on his 17th birthday last December.
Clarke is most at home in the number 10 position.
Ferguson said: “As soon as I came back into the building, Flynn was someone that I really liked. He is a good size, an athlete and can get you a goal.
“Unfortunately he picked up a bad injury because he would have been in the squad and would have without a doubt played in the first team had he been fit.
“These young players need to know there is a pathway to the first-team and then it’s up to them.”