The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Big bids galore for star Posh players
Posh have rejected a potential £5 million package from a Premier League club for young midfielder Harrison Burrows, the Peterborough Telegraph can reveal.
The unnamed club wanted to take the 20 year-old and play him in their under 23 side, an unwanted situation for Posh and the player. Burrows made 37 Championship appearances for Posh last season and contributed three goals and seven assists, despite playing out-of-position for a relegated team.
"There have been a couple of bids for Harrison,” Posh director of football Barry Fry said. “One from a Premier League club was considerable with a package that could have risen to £5m with all the add-ons, but they wanted Harrison for their under 23 side which is no good for him or us at this time so we turned it down.”
Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony said over the weekend: “Young Harrison rarely gets much credit for being a 19/20 year-old playing out of position at left wing-back and left full-back & creating/scoring 10 goals in the Championship in a relegated team. The kid had an incredible season by any account.”
Fry also revealed Posh had rejected a bid from a Championship club for wide player Joe Ward.
It’s likely Posh will have to sell in the summer to satisfy financial fairplay rules, but teenage defender Ronnie Edwards remains the most likely departure, although MacAnthony dimissed reports Crystal Palace have had a £4m bid turned down.
"No club would make a written off for Ronnie that small,” MacAnthony stated. “They know us too well.”
Palace, Spurs, Southampton and Aston Villa have all been linked with the 19 yearold who has indicated a desire to stay in England rather than go to one of three Bundesliga clubs (RB Leipzig, Eintract Frankfurt and Borussia Dortmund) who had also shown an interest.
Meanwhile, Posh chairman MacAnthony caused a few eyebrows to raise when asked about the immediate future of his club’s popular midfielder Jeando Fuchs last weekend.
"Believe it or not, I turned down a seven-figure bid for him from a Swiss club,” MacAnthony claimed. “I love Fuchsy and I didn’t even ask (Posh director of football) Barry Fry what club it was before I rejected the offer.”
He perhaps should have asked as Fry has told the PT there were two seven-figure offers, not from a Swiss club, but from clubs in France and Turkey.
Even a £1m fee would make a five-fold profit for a player Posh signed from Scottish Premier League side Dundee United in January. Posh had tried to sign Fuchs last summer for a reported £200k fee, although Dundee United have insisted on a decent sell-on clause if the combative Cameroon international midfielder leaves London Road.
Fuchs is keen on breaking into Cameroon’s squad for the Qatar World Cup and that became more unlikely with Posh’s relegation from the Championship.
The arrival of close-season signing, former Millwall, Portsmouth and Gillingham midfielder Ben Thompson, this week did lead to speculation that Fuchs, or even Jack Taylor, could be allowed to leave, but not so according to Fry.
"We have signed Ben to compete with Jack Taylor and Jeando Fuchs not to replace either of them,” Fry insisted. “We are after another midfielder as well. We are not going to let anyone else leave, apart from those on the transfer list, unless there are silly offers."
Club captain Oliver Norburn is also a central midfielder, but he is expected to leave the club once recovering from a serious knee injury.
Fry was in chatty form when the PT finally caught up with him this week and he delivered some information on players Posh are keen on selling. Goalkeeper Christy Pym,
centre-back Mark Beevers, plus midfielders Jorge Grant, Idris Kanu and Ryan Broom are all available for transfer.
"I have given Christy permission to speak to three League Two clubs. A transfer fee plus sell-ons have been agreed with all the clubs and it’s now up to Christy to make a move happen,” said Fry.
"We have received two bids for Jorge Grant, but turned them both down. There is interest in him so I would expect to get an offer we would accept eventually.
"There have been four clubs interested in Mark Beevers, but he wants to do his own thing and we are currently negiotiating with him on that.
"There has been no interest in Ryan Broom or Idris Kanu. It is still early in the summer though. Clubs are never keen on paying the wages of new players in June.”
Pym was effectively transfer-listed
after falling out with former manager Darren Ferguson last September. It’s thought the former Exeter goalkeeper favours a move to the south of England.
Scottish Premiership side Hearts are known to have bid for Grant who has a release clause in his Posh contract, but it’s not though a potential purchaser would reach that number. The 27 year-old only moved to Posh from Lincoln City last summer.
Beevers is working towards a mutual cancellation of his Posh contract so he can take over his own negotiations with prospective new clubs. The 32 year-old has previously been a target of Sheffield Wednesday, a former club with whom he started his professional career. Broom (25) was a big hit on loan at Plymouth last season. Current Posh boss Grant McCann has not ruled out re-instating the player to
his first-team squad if he impresses in pre-season.
League One clubs have made 18 signings since the end of last season with Ipswich taking on the most (3).
Newly-relegated Barnsley this week confirmed the arrival of new manager Michael Duff who has left League One rivals Cheltenham.
There has been money with Sky Bet on Posh winning League One in recent days as the club’s odds for the title have shrunk from 16-1 to 12-1.
Posh are now joint fourth favourites to finish top alongside Barnsley, MK Dons and Portsmouth.
Ipswich (5-1), Wednesday (6-1) and Derby County (9-1) are more fancied than Posh, but the Rams could well drift in the betting now that their existence is under threat following the collapse of a protracted takeover by United States businessman Chris Kirchner.