The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
£2M BID FOR JACK, IVAN OFF TO CELTIC?
Posh - January signing is in demand
Posh have received a bid of close to £2 million for midfielder Jack Taylor.
Posh co-owner Darragh MacAnthony made the revelatiion during the latest edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. It’s understood the bid was rejected.
MacAnthony claimed Posh paid ‘close to a million’ to bring Taylor from National League side Barnet last January. The reported fee was £500k.
MacAnthony was speaking in general terms about signing players from non-league football when he said: “I’m not going to give away our secrets, but there is plenty of science and data involved when we look at non-league players.
“We don’t just sign them if we believe they can play at League One level. We want them to go on and play even higher.
“The sweet spot as far as age is concerned is between 18-23 and Jack was 21.
“We knew he had a great pedigree as he started at Chelsea so technically he was going to be good and he had played in the Football League with Barnet and Barnet are very good with young players.
“The question was how quickly he could make the step up to League One as the tempo of the training and the matches is much faster.
“But we spent close to a million on him and he helped transform last season.
“He was brilliant, one of our best players and already we’ve had a bid of just under £2 million for him this summer.
“He did tear a hamstring in the last game we played which is probably down to an intensity he wasn’t used to, but he’s fit again now and looking good.
“We have a good record with signing players from nonleague. If they don’t make it with us they tend to have good Football League careers elsewhere.”
Posh have made their first signing of this summer with goalkeeper Dan Gyollai arriving on a free transfer from Wigan.
Posh have also confirmed the Peterborough Telegraph’s report of a return to London Road for Mark Robson as assistant manager.
Robson left a coaching job with England to come back to Posh eight years after he left.
“I was delighted to get Mark,” Posh boss Darren Ferguson said. “He was my first choice as soon as Gavin Strachan left.
“Mark is an outstanding coach who will bring fresh ideas, which I like.
“He is methodical and excellent with set-pieces and that is an area that we need to improve on because we didn’t score enough from them last season.
“We share the same football philosophy and we want to play the same way. He had success here before and hopefully he can do so again.
“He was highly regarded by England and he has coached at some big clubs.”
Posh boss Darren Ferguson was content rather than ecstatic after his side’s opening two friendly wins of the summer against local opponents Stamford AFC and Peterborough Sports.
A solitray goal from young forward Bradley Rolt was enough to secure victory against Stamford st the Zeeco Stadium last Saturday before goals from George Cooper, Sam Cartwright and two opposition defenders helped deliver a 4-2 win over Sports at the Posh training ground.
Posh were 4-1 up at the break in that game before a lacklustre second-half showing.
“There is always some good and bad in the first few friendlies,” Ferguson insisted. ““The key is to build on the good moments and work hard to improve on the other stuff. We have plenty of time for both.
“I had to raise my voice a couple of times during the Stamford game which I didn’t expect, but the sticky playing surface didn’t help us there.
“We improved in the second half of that game and we were excellent in the first-half on Tuesday when we managed to move the ball at a much quicker tempo.
“They sat off us in the second half which made it difficult for us, but that is something we are going to have to get used to.
“In those situations we have to move the ball quicker and get it out wide quicker.
“There was a lot of good stuff as well. Bradley Rolt is a natural goalscorer and he showed that at Stamford, while Jack Taylor and George Boyd were very good in midfield against Sports. George Cooper’s set-pieces were very good.
“But as always these games are about getting minutes into the players and to avoid injuries and we did that.
“The players have all had two lots of 45 minutes and now they will get 60 minutes each on Saturday.”
Posh are playing a fixture of two 60-minute halves again behind closed doors.
Posh wore their new third strip in both friendly matches. The strip is available to order now at www.theposhonlinestore.com