Project to develop a young striker for Peterborough United ‘excites’ chairman Darragh MacAnthony
Ricky-Jade Jones would be available in League Two, according to Darragh MacAnthony, and Posh would be willing to pay £1 million for him.
The Posh chairman has backed 20-year-old Ricky-Jade Jones in his goal to develop into a productive center striker, a position from which he did not want coaches to move him in the first place.
Jones returned to action for Posh against Cheltenham on Tuesday night after sitting out the previous two games. He had put on a good effort against Portsmouth and scored his first season goal before his most recent injury.
Despite being dogged by a series on niggling injuries since breaking onto the first team stage in 2019, there are signs he is starting to recover quicker from knocks and the next time he steps on the pitch for Posh will be his 100th appearance for the club.
He’s only 20 and I’m incredibly excited, MacAnthony stated on his Hard Truth show. We have a few choices for that striker position, and while he can play wide and rip teams apart down the left, the project that intrigues me is the team’s effort to make him into a legitimate striker.
Because of his speed, he will likely score many goals even accidentally. He will also cause chaos and receive red cards.
“That’s where he initially began when he joined our young team before being converted into a left winger. It didn’t sit well with me.
At the ages of 14 and 15, he was a striker. We’ve always known he’s got lightning speed, but when we started playing 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, he switched to the left side of the field.
He is a striker, 6’1″ and one of the fastest players in the Football League. He also has physicality. He can both increase and maintain his goal-scoring ability. While our supporters may become frustrated, I believe that if we saw Craig Mackail-Smith playing for a League Two team, we’d want to sign him. At the age of 22 or 23, he couldn’t strike a barn door.
If we were to develop and sell him to a company, I would likely pay $1 million for him in League Two based on his raw materials.
“I’m very glad he came back so quickly. He’s recovering much faster than the average person who sustains an ankle injury—most would be sidelined for a month. He is constantly evolving and getting better, and I can see it.
“Two years ago, people would joke that he was made of glass, but today he responds and returns more quickly. He has participated in nearly 100 games, which is a lot for someone who is supposedly always injured.
He, Malik, and Jacob make me incredibly enthusiastic about our strikers.
