On his podcast, “The Hard Truth,” Peterborough United’s owner and chairman explored the turmoil surrounding Bristol Rovers’ failure to re-sign Jonson Clarke-Harris.
Darragh MacAnthony, the chairman and owner of Peterborough United, has shared his first-hand account of the deadline day incident in which Bristol Rovers narrowly missed re-signing striker Jonson Clarke-Harris in a deal that would have set a club record.
Last Friday afternoon, with the transfer window shutting at 11 p.m., a fee of £800,000 plus performance-based add-ons was finally agreed upon as negotiations between the two teams escalated.
After speaking with Posh manager Darren Ferguson, Clarke-Harris took a taxi from Portsmouth, where the team was lodging, to Bristol. It was believed that there were just five hours remaining before the window closed, since the club was preparing to play at Pompey the next day in League One.
Rovers missed out by seconds on securing what would have been a game-changing deal for a two-time League One Golden Boot winner while also shattering their previous record transfer fee of £370,000 paid to QPR for Andy Tillson in 1992. However, the necessary paperwork wasn’t submitted to the EFL in time.
In his podcast, “The Hard Truth,” where he shares his perspective on what it’s like to work in the football industry, MacAnthony has explained in full what transpired with the agreement and the reasons it couldn’t be completed in time, over a week after it happened.
“When they came in, I understood why. They can pay him a lot more than we can and that would be a stand out signing for them. Then they just went completely quiet and dead. It was really weird. I know that they spoke to the agent about terms, Barry (Fry, Peterborough director of football) had spoken to the chief execs, spoke to the manager.
“My manager said, ‘look, I’m going to need a replacement lined up.’ And then they just went dead. It was really, really bizarre. Charlton had tried and then Bristol Rovers.”
Joey Barton had also discussed the possibility of signing the 29-year-old in press conferences, admitting that the club were seeking “the tip of the spear” whilst having to reflect publicly on the whole saga less than 24 hours later following his side’s 1-1 draw with Lincoln City.
“The good thing for us is that we’re in the mix to attract that calibre of player,” the Gas boss said to BBC Radio Bristol. “We’ve had a fantastic window, that would have been an almost perfect window for us.
“We’ve still go enormous quality in our building. As I say, from our perspective to be able to bring those types of players to our football club I think is a good indication of the progress we’re making as a collective in the last few years.”
Having been in Dubai on deadline day and dealing with being three hours ahead, MacAnthony added: “Joey, to be fair, had been putting the pressure on in his post-match interviews about the type of player they needed. The agent had intimated me to speak to Bristol. That’s the way it works. ‘There’s a bid coming in, it’s going to be the best bid.’
“I don’t want Bristol Rovers fans listening to this thinking I’m s****ing on their club, I’m having a go at their club. I have a really good relationship with Wael [Al-Qadi] and to be fair, Joey’s main football guy Eddy [Jennings] rang me up and he was really good.”
The Irishman emphasised that he has “a lot of time” for Rovers but that their opening bid wasn’t worth responding to with the Posh chairman repeatedly active on his X account throughout the window, stating that he had a valuation of Clarke-Harris and that he would stand firm by that.
A striker, as referenced by Joey Barton on numerous occasions, was seen by the club as the final piece of the jigsaw with the manager previously admitting that the 29-year-old would have been ‘the tip of the spear’ and, with the window closing in a couple of days at the time, the Gas started to push to get a deal done with a first bid, although well short of that valuation, made on the Wednesday.
MacAnthony stated: “I have a lot of time for them but the truth of the matter was a bid came in, I believe on the Wednesday, I understand you make opening bids but you don’t make opening bids for a player of that ilk at 300-odd grand. You just don’t.
“Darren had made the decision and said, ‘it’s time for Jonno to get himself fixed up and move on.’ I think he was looking forward to moving to the stage where he could play the way he wanted to play without having the pressure of there’s a double golden boot winner here. You’ve got to pick a player like that.
“I didn’t answer the bid. The agent rang me and I said, ‘don’t waste my f***ing time.’ His agent’s got a bit of stick from this deal but his agent tried his best for his player in so many ways and on so many levels.
“On the Thursday, Eddy rang me and said, ‘sorry about the bid. We got that one wrong. We shouldn’t have put it down.’ He started saying that they were going to put another bid in for five.
“I said ‘let me stop you there. Regardless of what’s written in the press, regardless about our obituary, our finances, this, that whatever else, I will not take 500 grand for Clarke-Harris.’ I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror. So I said, ‘I have my figure. This is what I wanted. I’m okay on waiting but that’s the number, otherwise he’s not leaving.'”
After sealing their 12th transfer of the summer the week before with midfielder Ryan Woods joining on loan from Hull City, the Gas were only going to do business revolving around bringing a striker through the door with a reunion with the Peterborough front man always the primary target.
Moreover, the deal would have shown significant ambition from new owner Hussain AlSaeed with the Kuwaiti’s investment in the club confirmed early last month with extra investment going into the playing budget as a result.
Although striker Ryan Loft joined Port Vale and young midfielder Ryan Jones joined Bromley on loan, deadline day was always going to be about whether or not Clarke-Harris was going to be back in blue-and-white quarters past 11pm.
MacAnthony added: “Friday morning, the agent said to me, ‘they’re coming back in stronger today.’ I’m about to go on Sky and I get a FaceTime call and I don’t recognise the number so I messaged the number and said, ‘who the hell is this?’ It was Wael.
“So I texted him and said, ‘I’m on Sky’ and he said, ‘what are we going to do about this deal?’ I said, ‘what deal? I’ve already responded to your new offer.’ Again it was just like, forget it.
“I went back to them and went, ‘not to waste anyone’s time because I know the player’s in Portsmouth. This is what I’ll do, these are the add-ons, this is the deal.’
“So he said, ‘can you ring me when you’re on a break from Sky.’ I rang him and we had a great catch-up. He said, ‘the new owners want to make a splash but they also want to give value for money.’ He didn’t say yes or no and I said, ‘with all due respect, you either want the player or you don’t.’
“He said, ‘what would it take to do a deal’ and I went, ‘it would take this.’ The deal was about £800,000 plus £250,000 in achieveable add-ons, promotion, goals bonus. We paid a large chunk to them and I allowed some of it over time.
“At 5:30 UK time, he messaged me after going back to the new owners and said, ‘look, I’ve got this. It’s done, I’ve got it, agreed.’ So I went back to him saying, ‘can you get your chief executive to paper that and email it to me now? I’ll let Liz [Elsom] know.’ He said, ‘yeah, I’ll do it.’
“So six o’clock, I still hadn’t had the email. Eventually the guy emailed over with the offer and I accepted. Before six I had said, ‘you have permission to speak to the player.’ I contacted the agent and player saying he can travel to Bristol. He doesn’t actually need to travel to Bristol, you can do these deals remotely.”
With a fee agreed and Clarke-Harris given his manager’s blessing and on his way to Bristol, negotiations over terms were still taking place but there was still enough time for the transfer to go through before the deadline, with MacAnthony also explaining that a deal can be made subject to a medical with the medical taking place after the transfer, although he didn’t think it was necessary.
He also added that Peterborough’s head of football operations Liz Elsom had started doing paperwork in advance to ensure that the deal went through on time.
“‘You want to do a medical?,'” the Posh owner said. “‘Okay, you can do subject to a medical’ but the player has played 50 games a year for the last three years. He’s super fit.
“I messaged Liz and said, ‘look, these guys aren’t the fastest so in advance, why don’t you prepare the transfer documents? Tell Bristol you’ll prepare the documents.’
“So Liz prepared the documents, the basic overlook of the document, and then they have to fill it in with all their details and different bits.
“At 8 o’clock, I knew the player was already down there. He was at his Dad’s house. So I said to the agent, ‘you need to get the player in’ and he said, ‘we’re still discussing terms.’ That should have already been worked out.
“Anyway, the player went in, it was after nine. There’s still two hours to go. I said to Liz, ‘they’ve got all the documents?’ and she said, ‘yeah.'”
However, at 10pm Elsom still couldn’t see the deal registered on her system with MacAnthony adding, “After ten, we’ve got our own stuff going on, I messaged Liz and I was like, ‘is this registered yet?’ She’s got some system where we can see when deals are registered, it’s like a database, and she was like, ‘it’s not there’ and I’m like ‘well, they need to get a move on because there’s half an hour to go’
“I messaged the agent, who was there, and said, ‘you need to tell them to get a move on. What’s the hold up here?’ If you’re doing a medical, do it after the deadline.’ You can do it subject to medical. So you can get all your paperwork in and do the medical an hour afterwards. But don’t miss the deadline.
“20 minutes to go and I messaged again and said, ‘there’s nothing in the system. You need to get them to file for an emergency extension which is 15 or 20 minutes and I could hear him shouting to them ‘you need to file for an emergency extension’ and all the bedlam going on or whatever.
“At 11 o’clock I asked Liz if it was showing up in the system. I’ve obviously let Darren know. Barry was down in Southampton but was on the phone all the time even though he was at an event. The manager’s in Portsmouth.
“She said to me, ‘it’s not in the system Darragh’ so I’m like okay, they’ve missed the submission deadline and if they haven’t filed for the emergency extension, it’s no good. At 11:01, I knew it wasn’t happening. I was just like what? I give up.
“Then I’ve got to tell the manager, ‘he’s still here, he’s coming back’ and he was like, ‘what’s going on?'”
Elsom also spoke on the podcast, confirming that Rovers’ request for a 15-minute extension was lodged at 11:01 and the transfer itself at 11:17, meaning that the club missed out. She also explained how an appeal would work despite admitting it was a situation she had never been in herself.
“I’ve never been in that situation,” the head of football operations admitted when asked how an appeal would work. “I would imagine that you would put in an appeal to the board of the Football League and they would look at every appeal individually.
“I know the system is time-stamped. You can see exactly when anybody looked at the document. I know the system that we used is time-stamped and I know the Football League have technical people in and they’ll check that, they’ll check that that was all correct.”
After the deal collapsed, Clarke-Harris remains a Peterborough player and will have to be reintegrated into Ferguson’s plans despite being significantly above the squad’s average age at 29 with Posh blooding a young team, hence looking to sell the striker for the right price.
Amid fingers being pointed in numerous directions in regards to who is to blame for the collapse, MacAnthony admitted that, from his side, everything that could have been done was done. He also revealed that an apology from Jennings had been received with Rovers putting out a statement on Saturday stating that ‘late changes to the deal prevented it being completed.’
“The player will want to blame agents, they will want to blame whoever,” the Irishman said. “But the reality is if you have permission at six o’clock with five hours to go to sign a player, and people will hate me saying this and I don’t want to make salacious headlines and I don’t want to throw dirt at Bristol, but we did everything we could.
“There was no hold-up on our end there was no complications with negotiations. Once I agreed the deal, and I have receipts, I’ve got them emails, I’ve even got texts from the Bristol Rovers owner and from Eddy apologising for it not happening. Whatever way you want to dress it up, there were five hours to get it done.
“In that same time, I signed a player who was on a coach going to an away game and it was all done by DocuSign digitally. We even did press interviews with him, everything was done.
“So it can be done. It really comes down to your speed of work and getting things done and it just didn’t happen. So that was the story of the Clarke-Harris deal.”
Barton will now have to make-do with his current resources in the attacking department, which are more limited than what they were going into deadline day after Loft joined Port Vale with the assumption that the Clarke-Harris deal would be completed.
John Marquis is the club’s only out-and-out striker with Aaron Collins and Jevani Brown also able to play up front. However, the manager has called out for a talisman to reveal themselves as the club looks to pick up pace in the league when they return to action next Saturday, having taken six points from their opening six matches.
