sport news Barry Fry is thrilled his beloved Peterborough are finally back in the ...

sport news Barry Fry is thrilled his beloved Peterborough are finally back in the ...
sport news Barry Fry is thrilled his beloved Peterborough are finally back in the ...

Having hurtled through the thrills and spills of 25 years at Peterborough United, Barry Fry is reclining in his garden, cigar clenched between teeth, thumbs raised and screaming ‘Come on the Posh’ at the camera.

His conversation, peppered with expletives and fits of laughter, has bounded from financial chaos and the brink of despair, through dozens of deals to the delight of another promotion, the sweetest yet.

‘I’m just a silly football nut,’ he grins. ‘All my mates are retired, with their feet up. But I couldn’t imagine that. I get up at eight o’clock, go to work, banter with the lads, I love it. I never want to pack it in.’

Barry Fry relaxes in his garden as he gears up for Peterborough's Championship challenge

Barry Fry relaxes in his garden as he gears up for Peterborough's Championship challenge

Not when Peterborough are stepping up, back in the Championship, flush with Canadian investors lured in by owner Darragh MacAnthony, an upgraded academy and ambitious plans for a new £83million stadium.

‘It feels different this time,’ says Fry, 76. ‘We deserve to be there. We don’t feel we’ll be also-rans. We want to be the next Brentford or Barnsley. We’re in the Championship where we belong and I’m so pleased because I could never have taken the club this far.

‘I’ve been to hell and back a hundred times in 25 years. That’s a long time in a place where they hate you. I should’ve walked out after five minutes but now I feel like I’m in heaven and this makes up for all the heartache.’

It has been a turbulent relationship. Fry arrived at London Road as part-owner and manager in 1996, tempted by the promise of total control of the football side of the club.

Peterborough's return to the Championship has made up for all the hardship and heartache

 Peterborough's return to the Championship has made up for all the hardship and heartache

‘I was saying we’d score 100 goals and get promoted,’ he grimaces. ‘I got us relegated in my first year. Nightmare. Everyone in Peterborough thought I owned the club when I didn’t.’

Fry, it became clear, had no ownership rights and was unlikely to see again the money he poured in from his pay-off at Birmingham City. ‘The club was in bigger s*** than I thought,’ as he puts it, reeling off a list of problems that include employees stealing from the club. ‘It was a hellish ride for 10 years, I was manager for nine... 480-odd games. Not very successfully but I kept the club going one way or another.’

Fry did become the club’s owner, taking over to avoid administration by selling a property in Portugal, remortgaging his home in Bedford, drawing his pension and securing an overdraft against his mother-in-law’s house.

‘At one point, I was the owner, chairman and manager,’ he says. ‘All I ever wanted to be was a silly manager but I had to find £150,000 every month to pay the wages. I’d be up until five trying to work out where it was coming from.’

Fry begged, borrowed and struck deals, such as the time he bought Leon McKenzie from Crystal Palace for £25,000, paid in 25 instalments of £1,000 a month and sold him to Norwich three years later for

read more from dailymail.....

PREV sport news Sean Dyche breaks silence on training camp row with Everton stars after the ... trends now
NEXT Jake Paul, Amanda Serrano in action: Fight card, odds, date, opponents, start time, complete guide