Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has rejected claims that the club made an illegal approach for manager Robbie Savage, after Forest Green Rovers owner Dale Vince said the League One side spoke to his former manager without permission.
Vince told BBC Radio Gloucestershire that he initially refused Peterborough permission to speak to Savage. He said he was forced to agree to the move after Peterborough approached Savage directly before appointing him on 2 October. “Peterborough themselves have covered themselves in no glory here,” Vince said. “They came to us and said ‘we would like to speak to your manager’. We said no and so they spoke to him and then he came to us and said ‘I hear Peterborough want to speak to me’. So, that’s an illegal approach.”
MacAnthony, writing on X, disputed that account and said the process to appoint a new manager was “100% correct and proper, following all the rules”. He added: “I have been an owner for 20 years in the EFL and have respect for the process. Good luck to Forest Green in appointing a new manager.”
Forest Green, a National League side, announced late last month that Savage, 51, had been given permission to speak to another club, before confirming he had been offered the Peterborough job following Luke Williams’s departure. Vince described the negotiations as difficult, saying Peterborough paid no respect to Savage’s position. He said Savage was “stuck in the middle” after going there on the Monday, being offered the job verbally, then having the offer denied before the club said it would move to its second choice. Vince added that Forest Green had “no choice but to say ‘look, just take him, that’s the best thing for him’.”
Vince also said Savage, a friend, told Forest Green he had an “intense personal need to leave”, making a proper negotiation impossible. “In the end, we said ‘look, just take him on your terms’,” Vince said. “We cared more about Robbie than the outcome. Football is not a bad place, but there’s people in it that give it a bad name. Enough said.”
Forest Green have not confirmed whether they have contacted the Football Association about the matter. On the pitch, Savage won his first league game as Peterborough boss at his former club Leicester City on Saturday, a 3-1 victory. Peterborough host Burton Albion this weekend in Savage’s first home league game in charge.