Peterborough United reject record bids for Ronnie and the contigency plan in place should he leave, the club's £800k offer for a number 10, and clearing up a 'pulling the plug' misconception

The bids are understood to have come from Chelsea who have become the most persistent pursuer from severel interested Premier League clubs in the talented 19 year-old England youth international.

The PT have twice reported Chelsea’s interest in Edwards in the last three weeks including a story last weekend. Chelsea.

MacAnthony effectively confirmed the story on the latest edition of his ‘Hard Truth’ podcast. Hard Truth.

He also revealed there was a contigency plan in place should Edwards leave before the transfer window shuts on Thursday (September 1, 11pm).

"I rejected two firm bids for young Ronald,” MacAnthony said. “They were the highest single initial bids we've received in my time at the club.

"One arrived on Thursday and another on Friday and by Sunday the story was out there. I don’t know who leaked it out, but I doubt it was the agents.

"If Ronnie does leave and the club that buys him doesn’t loan him back to us we will try and sign a left-sided centre-back in his place.

"We have very good centre-backs at the club, but they are all right-footed. A left-footed player would give us balance.”

The record Posh transfer sale is the £10 million package they received for striker Ivan Toney from Brentford in August 2020. Reports at the time suggested Brentford paid between £5-6million for Toney with the rest of the fee dependent on add ons.

MacAnthony also added flesh to last week’s podcast story about the club pulling out of an attempt to sign a potential replacament for Sammie Szmodics. He insisted he did not ‘pull the plug’ on the deal as previously reported.

"We wanted the player, but as a permanent signing rather than the loan the player wanted,” MacAnthony said. “The manager said he’d only be interested in doing that as a deadline day move so we walked away from the deal. It wasn’t a case of me pulling the plug on the manager’s target.”

MacAnthony also reported he had made several bids up to £800k for a possible number 10, but when that final offer was turned down he backed away from the deal.

Posh have subsequently signed versatile forward Ephron Mason-Clark from National League Barnet for a six-figure fee.

"My manager and Barry Fry have been banging on about Ephron for a while,” MacAnthony added. “At first I thought he’d gone stale by being at Barnet too long, but he destroyed us in a pre-season friendly and the manager told me again recently that he was the player, from four or five options, that he wanted and I am happy to back his judgement.

"At first we thought he’d gone to a rival from the top of the League One table (believed to be Portsmouth) and they tried to gazump us when we had him in the hotel ready to sign.”