Gers poised for 33-goal striker, club “can’t compete” financially

Scouting Peterborough United in England’s third tier might be scoffed at by some but when you consider their recent success of finding and developing players they are worth keeping an eye on, especially someone who has scored 33 goals this season.

Jonson Clarke-Harris’s future remains uncertain despite Posh getting promoted to the Championship and at 26-years old he may feel that it is his last chance for a move to a bigger club.

Speaking to Sky Sports and reported by Hull Live, Peterborough chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, believes that their wage structure could be the stumbling block to keeping hold of their star man:

“Peterborough United can never pay players £25,000-30,000 a week, there will be seven or eight clubs already offering Jonson Clarke-Harris, (Siriki) Dembele, that kind of money. We are that club, we have to build.

“We’re not going to be selling a lot of our assets, but you always have one player that so many clubs are after, they’re going to tap them up which is normal, par for the course and it’s difficult to compete with that.

“He’s been fantastic, the best player in League One, the best goalscorer in England and if we can keep him, brilliant, because he’ll be worth double by January in the Championship.”

Rangers have also been linked with Dembele but after securing the services of Fashion Sakala, we would be unlikely to be after another versatile forward, Clarke-Harris obviously knows where the goal is and has a physicality that would be useful in the Scottish Premiership, however, he wouldn’t come cheap.

Any big outlay on forwards would have to be to replace any departures, Jermain Defoe the most likely not to be around next season, the good thing is, we don’t need a striker, the recruitment last summer means that even if someone like Alfredo Morelos does go, we at least have adequate over in the short term and won’t be held to ransom – regardless of how many goals someone may have scored.