Peterborough United boss Grant McCann has offered an insight into why Crystal Palace failed to land Ronnie Edwards, telling the Peterborough Telegraph that their ‘valuation’ wasn’t met.
Back in April, when Posh were still a Championship club and Edwards was just starting to cause a stir in scouting circles, The Sun claimed that Peterborough were holding out for a club-record fee for their England U19 international centre-back.
In short, any interested club – and there was no shortage of those – would have to part with £15 million.
And, as Crystal Palace would discover on deadline day, that was not a valuation Peterborough were in a hurry to alter.
Crystal Palace miss out as Peterborough United stand firm over Ronnie Edwards
“Yes, there was a bit of interest in him, and for quite a long time. But like we’ve always said; if the valuation isn’t met, then (our players) won’t go,” McCann explains.
“We had our finger on the button. If he had left, we would have replaced him. And even if he did go, the chairman was adamant he would have to come back here on loan.”
According to the Daily Mail, Crystal Palace’s largest deadline day bid stood at around £7.5 million. A sizeable fee for a teenager plying his trade in the third tier, but The Eagles would likely have had to double that offer if they were to tempt promotion-chasing Peterborough into a sale so late in the window.
“I’m pleased the window is closed now,” McCann adds. “It feels like it has been open for almost a year.
“Ronnie is a great kid and he just gets on with it. That’s the way to go about it when you’re such a young talented lad. Just let your football do the talking. Ronnie and I have a really good relationship. He’s not mentioned once to me that he wanted to leave.”
Edwards, labelled an ‘incredible talent’ by former Posh boss Darren Ferguson, is a long-term target for Tottenham Hotspur. Peterborough chairman Barry Fry, meanwhile, confirms interest from Manchester City too.
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