Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony says he was stunned when he heard Town had recruited former Posh forward Sammie Szmodics from Blackburn Rovers for as little as £9 million, and £9 million spread over a period of time rather than up front.
TWTD was first to reveal that Town and Rovers had finally agreed a deal on Friday evening after more than a month of negotiations. Szmodics made his Premier League debut in Saturday’s 2-0 home loss to Liverpool.
McAnthony revealed that Posh are due 15 per cent of the profit Blackburn make on the £1.8 million plus add-ons the Lancastrians paid for the Republic of Ireland forward in the summer of 2022 with his previous club, Bristol City, receiving 20 per cent of that.
"A great move for him. I cannot believe that deal. I am f*****g stunned. I was stunned. Nine million quid!” MacAnthony said in his The Hard Truth podcast.
"I don’t give a f*** if he’s 28, if you did your homework, he’s the type of player who will play until he’s 35 based on how he plays.
"I cannot believe for the life of me why some of the top teams in the Championship - and Ipswich is a massive club, don’t get me wrong - but there are some big clubs in the Champ. I cannot believe nobody, nobody went in and sniffed at £12, £13 or £14 million.
"I said the other day, when you pay over three years or four years and you add the player’s wages in, you’re probably talking about £5 million a year on a four-year deal or whatever.
"For a player that basically will guarantee you top six in the Champ, which gives you a one in four chance of the play-offs and getting to the Premier League or one in two if you’re in the top two of going up automatically. I cannot f*****g believe it.
"For a player to go for that kind of money, I don’t know what’s gone on with the market this summer because I’ve seen players who are half that player go for £15, £16, £17 million from the Champ. I don’t know what’s going on.
"The worst part is, people say it might be a flash in the pan. The m*********r was already leading goalscorer in cup and league games this season inside one and a half sub appearances or whatever. I can’t believe it.
"Then I couldn’t believe, fair play to Ipswich, that it wasn’t even up front, it was all over time because we’ve got to wait for our segment.
"When I get the text through with the amounts from Baz [director of football Barry Fry], I thought somebody had made a f*****g helluva bid for one of our players. I thought it was the payment and rang Barry and I said, ‘F*****g hell! Four [million] up front or whatever else’. And Barry was like, ‘No, no, no…’.”
He added: "A helluva deal for Ipswich, a helluva deal for the boy because he’s from that neck of the woods, Colchester, Ipswich is down the road.
"I’m proud as anything because you’ve got Ronnie [Edwards] in the Premier League [at Southampton], Jack Taylor in the Premier League [with Town], Ivan [Toney] in the Premier League [Brentford], Sammie in the Premier League. All those players were with us around Covid.
"Quite a few of them we might have paid seven figures for but they were all with us around Covid and Harrison [Burrows] could be there next year.”
MacAnthony says Szmodics playing for Blackburn in their first three games of the season despite hardly having any pre-season was illustrative of his character, as was his desire to drop from the Championship for a loan spell in League One at Oxford in order to play football during a spell at London Road when he was out of the team.
"He’s a proper football character, that’s why he will have an EFL Hall of Fame career,” the Dubliner continued.
"That’s why he will make it work in the Premier League because of his will to win, his resilience, his dedication.
"He’s going to be a terrific signing for Ipswich. F*****g Ipswich, fair play to them, they’re really having a go, I have to say, very, very impressive what they’re doing.
"And apparently, I read the match report, and they were very good for a long period of time against Liverpool.
"Really, really good. I wish everyone at Ipswich really well and I hope Sammie kills it there and maybe he’ll win the Golden Boot in the Premier League and he’ll go for £50 million next summer, who knows!”