Chairman insists Peterborough United's recruitment for the Championship was 'very good'

MacAnthony delivered his verdict on the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast after a few days full of barbs and criticism from the local media and fans following relegation from the second tier.

Hard Truth

The club’s recruitment, in which the chairman plays a leading role, has been a major talking point in a season which saw Posh relegated with two games to spare after winning just eight of 44 matches.

MacAnthony expressed disappointment in the local media ‘for turning against him.’ A hard-hitting Peterborough Telegraph article, which has been viewed by over 10,000 readers, caused him particular angst.

Hard-hitting

"The recruitment wasn’t perfect, but it was very good,” MacAnthony insisted. “We did the best we could for a club of our size. We had targets that didn’t want to come to us.

"And the players I paid money for? I don’t regret signing a single one of them. They will all become successful players and assets for our club.

“Josh Knight has been one of our best players since January and two Championship clubs are after him.

"We spent £100k on Joe Tomlinson who’s been tearing it up with Swindon in League Two, but unfortunately has now damaged his MCL (knee ligament).

"We spent £250k on Kwame Poku and he’s shown what he’s about and in January we spent around £150k on Jeando Fuchs whose stats say he’s one of the best holding midfielders in the Championship.

“And Joel Randall will be a big signing for this club. We couldn’t have predicted the issues he would have, but we think we have got to the bottom of them now. (Manager) Grant McCann told me the other day he was surprised at how good Joel was after watching him train.

"Did we make some mistakes with contract extensions? Probably, but I showed loyalty to players and there isn’t enough of that in football. I showed loyalty to (former manager) Darren Ferguson in October by honouring a commitment in the summer to give him a new contract. I don’t regret any of it.

"I am not apologising for the recruitment and I am not apologising for relegation. I would never do that. I have slogged my guts out for the club and invested a lot of time. The local media appear to have turned on me after 15 years of trying to give them whatever they want.

“If people need a scapegoat, I’ll be that, but there was no shortage of effort on my part.”

Posh paid a million pounds to Exeter for Randall last summer (payable over the four years of his contract), but the 22 year-old has started just one Championship game so far this season after suffering injuries and illness.