Posh’s bitter-sweet day

Wednesday, 01/02/2012

by Chris Harman, Shoot's Peterborough blogger

Peterborough fans suffered transfer deadline day heartbreak as star centre back Ryan Bennett completed a last-minute switch to Premier League side Norwich City.

Rumours circulated on the morning of deadline day that Swansea City were preparing a bid for the England Under-21 international. By midday, Posh officials had confirmed they were in discussions with the Welsh side, and we all feared the worst.

However, by the evening the talks appeared to have stalled, with the Swans seemingly unwilling to meet our valuation of the player. Sighs of relief all round.

Then, with a couple of hours of the transfer window remaining, the Canaries swooped. At just before the 11pm deadline, Bennett was a Norwich player.

The fee taking Ryan to Carrow Road hasn’t been disclosed, but Posh owner Darragh MacAnthony has revealed it’s a club record sale. The previous record had been Craig Mackail-Smith’s £3m move to Brighton last summer.

Posh fans haven’t quite seen the last of Bennett yet – Norwich have agreed to send him straight back to us on a one month emergency loan while we find a suitable replacement.

To compound our misery, we had a bumper £1.9m bid for highly-rated Crawley Town pair Tyrone Barnett and Kyle McFazden rejected earlier in the day.

Three straight defeats in the league has seen Darren Ferguson’s side slump to 17th in the Championship, and with the imminent departure of arguably our best player and no new arrivals in sight, it’s easy to see why fans are starting to worry.

In a sense, the club has become a victim of its own success – at the start of the season, we’d have snatched your hand off to be nine points clear of the relegation zone in February – but our complete loss of form over the last month has seen us looking over our shoulder for the first time this campaign.

Last Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat to Portsmouth exposed a team bereft of confidence and ideas. The only saving grace was that the transfer window was still open. Rather than strengthen our team though, we’ve weakened it, and with some tricky fixtures coming up, many are wondering where the next win will come from.

Personally, I’m not panicking just yet. Yes, we’ve had a nightmare January, both on the pitch and in the transfer market, but I still believe we have enough here to keep us in the division which, let’s not forget, was our objective this season.

Putting our own worries to one side, no one can begrudge ‘Benno’ the move. We always knew he was destined for the Premier League; I just hope it doesn’t derail our season too much.

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