Club rejects transfer bid for Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and West Ham target

Peterborough United's director of football Barry Fry says they will only sell Aston Villa target Ronnie Edwards at the right price after rejecting bids for him this month.

Edwards is one of the most sought after players outside of the Premier League. He is highly-rated and at 20-years-old he has already played 121 games of senior football. He is a 12-time England under-20 international and owner Darragh MacAnthony believes that one day he will be sold for between £60m to £70m.

Peterborough are in the midst of a promotion race as Darren Ferguson's squad battle for a place in the Championship. A series of offers have been rejected for their array of young talent and with just a few days remaining, they have laid out their stance to interested parties for Edwards and co.

Fry said to the Peterborough Telegraph: “The chairman has been brilliant so fair play to him.

"We have been getting a lot of bids for lots of players and he’s turned the lot down. "They would have been worth millions to the club, but we believe we will never have a better chance of getting out of League One than this season and we want to keep this squad together."

Fry spoke about Edwards specifically and said that they would be open to signing Edwards should a club meet their valuation. Three bids have been rejected so far by Crystal Palace and the League One club are sticking to their valuation. West Ham are also said to hold a strong interest.

It was reported earlier this month by the Independent that the Posh are holding out for £10m. National League club Barnet have a 50% sell-on clause on the deal and so Peterborough do not want to lose one of their prized assets on the cheap given their model is to sell young players and reinvest that back in to the team. Peterborough could be open to selling him for a lower price should he be loaned back for the remainder of the 2023/24 campaign.

Fry added: "Financial fair play remains an issue for many clubs which might be good news for us, although we will honour our word to Ronnie Edwards should a club get to our valuation.

"But to be fair to Ronnie, there is no pressure coming from him or his agents about him getting away. That wasn’t the case in the summer when he had a different agent and West Ham came in for him.

"Ronnie is a great lad and a great player. He’s played 120 games for us now and he just gets better and better.

"He deserves the chance to play for a top club for sure.”