Peterborough owner's contract warning after Portsmouth's new boy signs short-term deal

And that means more short-term contracts like Pompey new boy Charlie Daniels has been signing to keep his career moving this season.

That’s the view of Peterborough, Darragh MacAnthony, in the latest episode of his podcast The Hard Truth - Inside the Football Industry.

MacAnthony sees more contracts with clauses which can see deals cancelled in the face of further coronavirus lockdowns moving forward.

The Irishman highlighted how Daniels inked a short-term agreement with Shrewsbury in October, after playing Premier League football with Bournemouth.

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Now the 34-year-old has signed for the Blues until the end of the season in the kind of move MacAnthony can see becoming the norm through the pandemic.

He said: ‘I think more and more deals are being done with Covid stipulations in contracts now, probably where if there’s a shutdown we can get out of the contract.

‘You’re going to see that a lot more and you’re going to see less money spent at the moment in League One and League Two.

‘And you’re definitely going to see short-term deals, like you saw when Charlie Daniels went from Bournemouth to Shrewsbury.

‘He only signed a deal to January and now he’s just gone down to Portsmouth.

‘So you’re going to see a lot more short-term deals - they’re called multiplicity contracts - where they’re month to month.

‘You’ll see a lot more of them and wages will become less in football.

‘There will be 2,000 people competing for jobs this summer, so there’s a realisation for agents and players: wakey wakey.

‘If you have a club offer you a three-year deal, snap their hands off. Stop fighting with them, because with everything going on in the world it’s a godsend to be offered a three-year contract.

‘Football is going to be like this for the next few years, regardless of Lockdown Larry in charge of things in the UK.

‘It’s going to be like this while we pay for the effects of what’s happened in the pandemic.

‘That’s going to trickle down to the players.’

MacAnthony underlined how clubs are still fighting for their existence as they haemorrhage huge losses through the pandemic.

And if fans remain unable to attend games outfits are going to go to the wall.

He added: ‘I think with the pandemic going on and the lunatic (Boris Johnson) here in the UK who loves a lockdown.

‘If people are still locked up for the next 18 months in this stupid place they’re going with it, I think the issue you’ve got then is football will change.

‘We don’t have the finances, this season has been a real stretch and it’s been hard for everyone.

‘We’re going into next season and these clowns still won’t let us have fans back, even after mass vaccination, we’re done.

‘I think lots of clubs are done, not my club, but lots of clubs are officially done.

‘We got the help this season and it wasn’t enough. It was much appreciated, but now the pressure needs to be put on the government and they need to start writing cheques.

‘The damage they’re doing now to our industry, never mind every industry.’

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