Peterborough United owner Darragh MacAnthony has revealed the inside track on Harry Leonard's deadline day move from Blackburn Rovers.
The Rovers striker's move to Posh was confirmed on the deadline last week. However, the move had been well in the works over the weekend with Leonard completing a medical and formalities.
MacAnthony reveals that his 'temper tantrum' about other business saw them change their offer from a loan to a permanent bid.
"Harry Leonard had always been on our list as a good young player and the manager and his staff had him on a Zoom call designed to get him here on loan, but I had a temper tantrum," McAnthony revealed on The Hard Truth Podcast.
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"This wasn’t us. I didn’t want two strikers on loan. That didn’t sit well with me. My reaction was to change tack on Harry. Let’s put an offer in for him and see how Blackburn react.
"I dressed up the bid a bit and expected Blackburn to tell us to **** off, but instead I had a call from Harry’s agent to say make a couple of amendments to the offer and we can then talk terms."
The Lancashire Telegraph broke the news that Leonard was heading for Peterborough in a permanent deal on Friday, August 29, before Monday's deadline. The deal had to then be revisited after Rovers asked for different terms.
Anthony believes the story was leaked to this publication in order to extract more money from Posh, however, that was far from the truth, with Rovers unaware the deal would be made public until the LT made a courtesy call.
The Posh chief also revealed that the deal was sewn up by Sunday night despite concerns the deal could fall apart on deadline day. Though the LT's report of a late Plymouth Argyle bid was accurate, it came over the weekend.
“We hammered out a deal and had to make a couple of changes re loyalty payments and stuff, but then I woke up the next morning to see the deal had been made public, probably to try and entice other clubs in for Harry," he continued.
"Then we had an email turning our offer down and that we had to pay for a serious medical as he’d had back and shoulder problems.
"I was worried the result we had at Exeter could also scupper the deal, but on the Sunday, I just relented and said ‘yes’ to everything within reason. I have to say Harry, his agent and his family were all brilliant.
"Harry was down here on Sunday night and trained with us on Monday which was transfer deadline day so all the other stuff that came out re a problem with the move was just nonsense.
"Two big clubs in League One did try and gazump us (Plymouth), but it was too late. We had our man and we are delighted.
"We did worry that Blackburn wouldn’t sell him because he’s a popular local lad, but he’s with us and at 21 he’s miles above League One level technically.”
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