The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
POSH WILL KEEP BACKING THE KIDS
Posh co-owner Darragh MacAnthony insists the fans need to get on board with the club’s commitment to young players.
Posh fielded three 18 yearolds - Ricky-Jade Jones, Flynn Clarke and Harrison Burrows - in their Papa John’s Trophy quarter-final defeat at Tranmere Rovers on Tuesday night, less than 24 hours after upsetting some supporters by refusing to make a transfer deadline day signing.
Posh boss Darren Ferguson had the opportunity to bring in a fresh face, but declined in favour of keeping faith with the young players in his first-team squad.
It was a move supported by MacAnthony and his fellow owners, even though the former chairman hammered the players after their defeat at Shrewsbury last weekend.
“The fans need to buy into our policy towards young players,” MacAnthony stated. “We want to be a club where the back-up player in every position is a young player. That’s where we are as a club.
“We had worked on three or four signing options if we wanted to pull the trigger in January, but the manager didn’t want to and credit to him for that.
“We still have two players for every position and we have some top young talent like the ‘greyhound’ Ricky-Jade Jones.
“He is the best young striker we have ever had. We have massive belief he will become very special so why would we bring someone in that would restrict his progress?
“We will always support our manager. Time will tell if we were right, but I still believe in my team. I highlighted how poor we were at Shrewsbury because that wasn’t good enough for a team that was third, but I know the players well enough to know they will bounce back.
“We can go on enough runs of three or four wins on the spin to keep in the promotion race and we can keep winning at home. It will come down to the small margins.”
An agent’s demands has only caused Posh co-owner Darragh MacAnthony to walk away from a transfer deal on one occasion.
Posh were keen on signing Irish winger James McClean from Derry City in 2011 when MacAnthony pulled the plug.
MacAnthony told ‘Hard Truth’ podcast listeners: “We pay agents no more than 5% of any deal and he wanted 15%. It dragged on so long I just pulled out of the deal and he went to Sunderland instead.
“The clubs had agreed a £150k fee, but we couldn’t get it over the line.
“Fair play to the player as his career path worked out okay for him.”
MacAnthony has also used his podcast to lift the lid on managerial negotiations at Posh and other clubs.
MacAnthony said: “I want my managers to be as ambitious and as determined to secure success as I am and their salary will reflect that.
“I reckon between £75-90k a year for a manager in League Two is the norm. A League One manager will usually get a sixfigure salary, but plenty more for a top manager at a top club and there is serious money to be made for a manager in the Championship.
“I usually put incentives in the contracts for my manager, but there will also be ‘get outs’ for me in the event we are not successful. I’ve given bonuses to managers when we’ve been live on television and if we do get promoted to the Championship he would get a hell of a pay bump.
“Usually if I sack a manager then I’ll pay him a year’s salary on a monthly basis until he finds another job when those payments will stop.
“I had a clause in one manager’s contract which gave the club the right to fire him with just a three month pay-off if we were outside the top six.
“I will say with the current manager (Darren Ferguson) the money is not the most important thing.
“He gets us and we get him. He wants to work for this club and get us promoted.
“His salary has never been a big issue.
“I was stunned when I learnt of Sol Campbell’s salary at Macclesfield though. For a club of that size to pay £250k a year was lunacy.”