Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony confirms West Ham United bid for Ronnie Edwards, expects sale in January
Peterborough chairman Darragh MacAnthony has confirmed West Ham made a bid for defender Ronnie Edwards this summer to join their first-team squad.
Speaking on his “Hard Truth” podcast (7 September), the Hammers’ bid was rejected as it was way below his valuation for the player while they also weren’t willing to loan the 20-year-old back to the League One side until January.
But MacAnthony admitted that he expects the defender to leave in January, with a Championship side (believed to be Swansea) set to return for him after getting “very close” to his valuation.
“Ronnie’s agent told us West Ham were definitely coming in with a bid,” MacAnthony said.
“All through July and August we were told they were keen, but when (owner) David Sullivan sent me his bid, it was for little more than I’d got for selling a 17 year-old (Benji Arthur) to Brentford. West Ham weren’t interested in loaning him back either. They wanted him for the first-team squad.
“I couldn’t sell him for that. I wouldn’t have been able to look myself in the mirror and there’s no way Sullivan would have made the bid he did without believing what was written in that article.
“I’m not asking for £6million, £8million, £10million. I’m being realistic as we are a League One club. If we were in the Championship I’d ask for a bit more.
“I just want a fair fee with some decent add ons and we will get it in January.”
One to watch
If West Ham are tabling bids for Edwards then it’s clear that we’re very interested and wanted him to be part of the squad for this season.
Unfortunately a deal didn’t happen for the former Barnet man, but MacAnthony has made it clear that he expects a deal to be done in January with several interested parties set to return to the negotiating table.
Whether West Ham are one of those remains to be seen, but it could be a case of the club allowing another team to agree a deal before swooping in with our Premier League status to convince the player.
With some talk that Nayef Aguerd is wanted in Saudi Arabia, their interest in January is likely to remain also and that could see Edwards potentially come in as a replacement which would see Dinos Mavropanos promoted to first-choice alongside Kurt Zouma.
It’s definitely one to pay attention to as we head towards the January window, because Edwards is a top young talent.
In other West Ham news, international star could lose national team spot ahead of Euro 2024 with starlet on the rise.