CAMBRIDGE YELLOW doesn’t think it a coincidence that Paul Lambert and David McNally get ‘lucky’ more often that not in the transfer market
The months of speculation finally ended last week when Craig Mackail-Smith signed for Brighton.
Given that there was supposedly interest from Norwich, Leicester, QPR and West Ham, to lose your star forward to a fellow newly-promoted side from League 1 seems pretty disastrous and doesn’t exactly send out positive signals ahead of a new season.
However Fry and McAnthony would argue it still represents a triumph for Peterborough. They showed ambition back in March by hanging onto to him and were rewarded with promotion back to the Championship. Granted it was a massive gamble (particularly given the form of Huddersfield), but it paid off.
They would also argue that they were resigned to losing him in the summer so it didn’t matter whether Brighton, Norwich or Real Madrid bought him as long as they got the asking price they were after – whether they actually got that asking price and how different it was to the figure we offered in March is something we will never know.
However for Peterborough the long-term damage could stretch beyond just losing their leading goalscorer. I for one think they are gaining a reputation as being extremely difficult club to do business with.
Firstly clubs are seem unhappy with the manner in which Peterborough negotiate transfers. For example, the way they are meant to have ‘moved the goalposts’ over the CMS deal or where McAnthony used Twitter to reveal that Norwich had rebuffed a bid for Cody McDonald.
This area also seems to extend towards dealings with players themselves, as illustrated by the bizarre chain of events in which Sam Baldock rejected a move from MK Dons last week.
Ultimately the big winners in this you would have to feel have been Norwich. The board sent out a strong message of their own that were not going to be held to ransom for any player.
At the time I felt the board had made the common sense move because it was certainly not the ‘Huckerby moment’ like in 2004 which would have practically ensured promotion.
Instead you were paying an eye-watering figure for a forward with one season of Championship football under his belt, who at 27 was unlikely to have any major resale value if he stayed with the club for any length of time.
It has allowed the club to take a more long-term view by signing their first choice James Vaughan – who is much younger than CMS – possesses the same prodigious work rate and also offers a better strike rate in the Championship.
Of course some would argue there was a certain degree of good fortune involved as well because no-one could have foreseen Simeon Jackson finding such an incredible run of form at such a crucial time to guide the Canaries to promotion.
But it’s testament to the skill of both Paul Lambert and David McNally that they both seem to get ‘lucky’ more often than not.
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