Peterborough United chairman on team selection, team building for next season, great young players, a possible loan departure, creating a Wembley sequel and Wrexham AFC

Club confidence in the 2023-24 campaign was always higher than that of the fanbase and local media, but settling for a fourth place finish in League One behind the three biggest clubs in the division plus a Wembley Final success in the EFL Trophy is not on any agenda.

MacAnthony also used the latest edition of his popular ‘Hard Truth’ podcast to discuss squad strength, the team selection for Tuesday’s defeat Cheltenham Town, team-building plans for next season and the failure of some clubs, including Wrexham, to publicly distance themselves from controversial FA Cup changes.

Hard Truth podcast

MacAnthony said: “Some of the criticism we’ve taken over our squad strength has been unfair. We are not supported by 20,000 fans at home games every week like Derby and Bolton which gives you more room to manoeuvre with financial fairplay and can lead to bigger squads.

"Our plan was to go into the season with 15-16 players. The 11 starters and five or six that could step in when required. Don’t forget we lost Jeando Fuchs to injury for virtually the whole season and his wages would have paid for two decent central midfielders to supplement what we had.

“A lot of our players have played a lot of games this season. They needed a rest and they certainly didn’t need a midweek trip to Cheltenham after a long Saturday trip to Bristol. The manager made the decision to leave players out, but we still fielded a lot of players with first-team experience and we had a front four on the pitch who most League One and Two clubs would have loved to have. We felt we put a team out capable of winning the game, but we defended so poorly at the start we struggled. We still created the better chances and we had 68% possession, but it wasn’t to be and Cheltenham were more ruthless and deserved to win.

"I get that Cheltenham’s involvement in the relegation battle was an issue for some, but you can’t rely on other teams. You need to do the business yourselves.

"I suspect we will be quite strong for Bolton on Saturday. The players can then have a seven-day break before the play-offs and make sure we are in top fettle for the first game. I am confident we will be in good shape and we can go on and make a Wembley sequel.

"We’ve gone into play-off campaigns in iffy form and won them and we’ve gone into them with momentum. It really doesn’t matter as everyone presses a reset button for the play-offs.

"We’ve done well to finish in the top four and to win a trophy after what was written in the summer, but we want to make it count now. We have nothing to lose as were not favourites to do anything this year. We can have a free run at the play-offs against one of four great teams.”

NEXT SEASON

Harley Mills was excellent at Cheltenham as was James Dornelly. There is more expectation re Dornelly right now, but Harley also has a great chance.

Harley was often dealing with three opponents at Cheltenham as he didn’t get a lot of help from alongside him or in front of him. He has a wand of a left foot and he set up a great chance for Jonson Clarke-Harris. Neither Harley nor James winced at Cheltenham even though we struggled defensively.

"We will be addressing the centre-back situation in the summer. We will be losing a lot of centre-halves so we are having to do some remodelling in the first team and we will also make sure we have quality coming through. We have signed two centre-backs for the under 21s, one a 6ft 4ins left-sided defender from Aston Villa and Ollie Rose from our Academy who is signing a pro deal.

"It was also disappointing to see we had to play two centre-backs in midfield at Cheltenham because we didn’t have players in the under 21s capable of stepping up, hence why they are being released.

"Pemi Aderoju will get his chance to play in the first-team in the summer after scoring loads of goals for the under 21s and if, for one reason or another, it doesn’t come off do we loan him out to get first-team experience into him that way? There are loads of clubs at the top of Non League and at the bottom of League Two who would take him. I’m obviously not making a direct comparison here, but Pemi has the stature of an Ivan Toney. He’s a strong man. I often wonder whether or not Ricky-Jade Jones would have benefitted from such a move.”

THE FA CUP

“I did an e-mail to EFL clubs asking them to join us in criticising the decision to scrap FA Cup replays, but Championship clubs have been quiet and it’s disappointing that Wrexham have been quiet. If they have said something then I apologise, but I haven’t seen it. I guess their fans will say this is me having another dig at their club, but it’s not. I’m usually very positive about them and I’m a big fan of their owners. But this is a club that has made a lot of money from replays on ESPN. I will watch part three of their documentary, but it did amuse me they have been marketing it with the theme tune from Rocky, one of the great underdog movies!”