Peterborough United boss Darren Ferguson speaks for the first time since Blackpool's failed approach for Ollie Norburn

The Seasiders had a six-figure deadline day bid rejected for the 29-year-old, as confirmed by Posh chairman Darragh MacAnthony.MacAnthony suggested the club would reassess Norburn's situation during the summer, but needed him in the meantime to help Posh escape relegation.

Norburn, who was handed the captaincy at London Road in December, had requested a move back to the North West to be closer to his young family, who live in Bolton.

That's despite the central midfielder only making the move to Peterborough during the summer from Shrewsbury Town.

Despite Norburn's desire to leave, Ferguson suggested he wouldn't take the captaincy away from him.

“It will all depend on Ollie’s attitude,” Ferguson told our sister paper, the Peterborough Telegraph.

“And knowing his character and professionalism I expect he will get his head down and give his all for the club. If that happens I won’t take the captaincy away.

“His situation is difficult. We all understand that, but we didn’t want to sell him in our situation and so turned down several bids from Blackpool.

“You’d never have known from the manner of his performances that he was unhappy. He was genuinely injured and unable to play last weekend and we missed him.”

MacAnthony, taking to Instagram on deadline day to discuss the situation, said Norburn was never for sale.

“I spoke to Ollie myself on Saturday when I heard he wasn’t available for the game (against Sheffield United), he had a dead leg or something," he explained.

“Everything had come up with the bids from Blackpool then the story gets leaked on Saturday about wanting to move home. I don’t know where the story came from.

“We’re trying to play a game on Saturday and this is going on, so it’s not ideal.

“I spoke to him man-to-man on the phone and he explained the situation of wanting to move home. I get it, I’m a family guy. I haven’t seen my own kids or my wife for five weeks.

“I told him there’s 120 days until June and his job is to keep us in the Championship like every other player at the club.

“While I understand about the family situation, I have over 200 employees with their own families and there are careers on the line depending on whether we stay in the Championship or being in League One.

“I told him he has my word and we will work with him having more time at home and give us your best shot to keep us in the Championship.

“If it’s mission accomplished, I’ll do my best to get him a good move in June, which was my agreement with him. But that was on Saturday.

“Today, another offer came in three hours before the deadline and we told Blackpool ‘no, it’s not happening’. We left it at that because we wouldn’t have had time to get a replacement anyway.

“We wanted to keep him, the manager wants to keep him and it was his decision.

"The player is going to be disappointed, I get it, but there’s 120 days and 19 league games left. We paid a lot of money in the summer and we expect professionalism until the end of the season. He’s the type of character to give it his all.

“That’s that one, he was never going to leave.”

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