“It’s just a bad situation,” says a Bristol Rovers fan pundit in response to Peterborough’s transfer failure.
Bristol Rovers were unable to complete a late move for Peterborough United forward Jonson Clarke-Harris.
This post is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which features personal thoughts from our FLW Fan Pundits on breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings, and more…
On deadline day, Bristol Rovers were unable to sign Peterborough United striker Jonson Clarke-Harris.
According to Bristol Live, the two clubs agreed on a fee for Clarke-Harris in the area of £800,000 plus add-ons, which would have smashed the Gas’ transfer record.
However, “the necessary paperwork to complete the transaction was not filed with the EFL in time before the 11 p.m. deadline.”
Clarke-Harris would have returned to the Memorial Stadium, where he scored 27 goals in 49 games before joining Peterborough United in August 2020.
Despite scoring 29 goals last season, the 29-year-old was transfer listed this summer as he enters the final year of his contract with Posh.
After failing to sign Clarke-Harris, Rovers boss Joey Barton admitted it would have been a “perfect” window if the club had completed a move for the striker.
The good thing for us is that we’re in the mix to attract that calibre of player. We’ve had a fantastic window, that would have been an almost perfect window for us,” Barton told BBC Radio Bristol.
“We’ve still go enormous quality in our building. As I say, from our perspective to be able to bring those types of players to our football club I think is a good indication of the progress we’re making as a collective in the last few years.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to get it over the line by inches, seconds by the sound of things. I thought it was done but that is life and that is football.”
How significant was Bristol Rovers’ loss of Jonson Clarke-Harris?
Steve Hutson, a Bristol Rovers fan on FLW, was extremely frustrated that the Gas were unable to conclude a deal for Clarke-Harris.
I was massively disappointed that the Jonson Clarke-Harris deal fell through,” Steve said.
“It just seems like all three parties were playing games really, they had plenty of time to get the deal done.
“Whether it was the fault of Bristol Rovers, whether it was the fault of Peterborough, or, as some reports have suggested, whether it’s to do with the agent of Jonson Clarke-Harris, it’s just a sorry situation that could have been avoided really.”
What next for Bristol Rovers?
There is no doubt it was a huge blow for the Gas to miss out on Clarke-Harris, but as Barton says, it is a positive for the club that they are in the race for a player of his quality.
Rovers have had a difficult start to the season, now sitting 17th in the table, so a prolific scorer like Clarke-Harris could have made a significant impact to their campaign, but they do still have a number of offensive threats, including Scott Sinclair, John Marquis, and Aaron Collins.
Because Clarke-Harris is in the final year of his contract, Peterborough will be hesitant to leave him for free next summer, and they will most likely want to cash in on him again in January, so the Gas might make another move.
