Wrexham and Bristol Rovers may reconsider potential Peterbrough United swoop: View | OneFootball

Highlights

Jonson Clarke-Harris has been a wanted man over the last two transfer windows, with both Wrexham and Bristol Rovers said to be fighting it out for the forward.

In fact, Rovers came mightily close to succeeding in bringing the striker back to the Memorial Stadium for the 2023/24 season, only for an admin issue preventing the move from happening.

That issue may have been a blessing in disguise for the Gas, with their former marksman barely managing to get his name on the scoresheet in the current campaign, with just six league strikes to his name in League One so far from his 23 appearances.

Phil Parkinson’s National League champions were also thought to be keeping tabs on the 29-year-old in January, but opted to bring in the experience of Steven Fletcher and, in January, Jack Marriott instead as they look for successive promotions into the third tier.

Jonson Clarke-Harris’ scoring record in the EFL

Followers of the EFL will be no stranger to seeing Clarke-Harris’ name popping up on the scoresheet in the past five seasons or so, having found the net 99 times in the league since the start of the 2018/19 campaign, as per FootyStats.

That season was his first in the blue and white quarters of Bristol Rovers, the club where he found his form after struggling to impress in spells at Coventry City and Rotherham United.

But 24 goals in 42 league matches for Rovers over the course of two seasons was enough to tempt Posh into a move for the big man up top in the summer of 2020, for a reported seven-figure fee.

The striker soon proved that was money well spent for the London Road outfit with 31 league goals in his first season at the club; firing them to promotion back to the Championship and proving himself to be one of the most clinical strikers in the EFL at the time.

12 goals in the second tier followed as Peterborough immediately returned to the third tier, before a further 26 goals last year fired his side into the playoffs - before they agonisingly lost to eventual winners Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-finals.

At his peak, Clarke-Harris was providing a goal every 126 minutes for his side - for comparison current League One top scorer Devante Cole is finding the back of the net every 162 minutes for Barnsley this season - but this season those goals have dried up considerably with the forward wanting to get out of the club.

The Peterborough Telegraph reported that a move to Charlton Athletic was close to going ahead in the January transfer window, only for a disagreement in personal teams with the Addicks to scupper the move, leading to the striker being ostracised from first team plans by boss Darren Ferguson.

“He’s fine, he’s just not in the squad. I have to be loyal to the ones that have been involved,” the Posh manager said last month, further hinting at further lack of involvement as the season draws to a close.

Six league goals is a paltry return for a striker of Clarke-Harris’s quality, but team unity can act as much more of a catalyst than the one-man show that he can provide at times, with the League One promotion-chasers spreading the goals around the team.

Coventry City-bound Ephron Mason-Clark has racked up 11 league goals this campaign, while hotly-tipped Kwame Poku has registered eight times, while Ricky Jade-Jones and Hector Kyprianou have found the back of the net seven and six times respectively.

With just ten assists throughout his whole Peterborough career you can see just why Ferguson has preferred other strikers recently; linking up play and selfless play isn’t something that comes naturally to the number nine.

With his contract up in the summer, Clarke-Harris will surely have options but Rovers and Wrexham, who would seem obvious suitors due to their past interest, may well reconsider a swoop for the 29-year-old - given his frustrating 2023/24 campaign, both on and off the pitch.