Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has revealed just how close new Blues striker Kayden Jackson came to joining Posh earlier in the week. The 24-year-old eventually signed for the Blues for an initial fee of £1.6 million yesterday, penning a three-year deal with the club having an option for a further season.
"One of our targets was Kayden Jackson,” MacAnthony said (see below, from 3mins 20secs). "We’ve chased him relentlessly, I have anyway, since January, [Accrington chairman] Andy Holt will tell you that.
"We put bids in in January, I put bids in on 2nd May, 10th May, 20th May and we fought that one all the way through the summer.
"Last Monday, Andy finally rang me, I was in my house, and he said, ‘Right, you’ve got a deal, you’ve got permission to speak to him, it’s down to you and the agent and the player, but I’m also giving permission to other Championship clubs [understood to be the Blues and QPR]’. When I heard that I thought ‘Right here we go, other Championship clubs’.
"I even got involved, I spoke to the agent all Monday, I spent 11 hours on the deal, I spoke to the player directly and at 12.30 on Monday night the player told me he was coming, the agent told me he was coming, the boss of the agency told me he was coming. It was done, everything was agreed with Accrington and with the player.
"Tuesday morning, he was picking his gear up at Accrington, he was driving down to us for the medical. I spent four grand on a medical because it was such a substantial fee, a thorough medical.
Transfer deadline day chat... https://t.co/rB0UFatmqH
— Darragh MacAnthony (@DMAC102) August 9, 2018
"And the agent on Tuesday morning said, ‘Yeah, he’s picking his boots up, blah-de-blah’. But in that time in between, as can happen, Ipswich got on the phone to him, did what they did, it’s the Championship, it’s a lot more than we can offer. Worse than that he wanted to play in the Championship because he’s 24, he’s not 20, 21. And he changed his mind.
"So, that was absolutely devastating and that was tough to take because Monday night a lot of work went into that, particularly from me, and I was disappointed not to get that one over the line.
"But I was thrilled that we could reinvigorate the Ivan Toney one [from Newcastle] which we thought we’d lost during the summer.”