This is what happened to Erhun at Posh:
"The club haven't so much taken a parting shot so much as tried to shield themselves from any criticism for letting a first-team player leave for a rival club for fuck-all. There's a bit more to it than that however.
The underlying issue here was the original contract that Erhun signed two summers ago. I should make very clear that this contract wasn't negotiated at all and that it was waiting for him when he arrived at London Road. The basic wasn't all that much but it was quite reasonable for a player whose only previous two seasons in England had been played at Isthmian League level. Like the rest of the squad, there were myriad performance-related clauses which, given 25-30 appearances, a few goals and a promotion, would put a completely different complexion on his earnings. There were a few other clubs interested but having met Ferguson and Fry, he was easily convinced and signed a very happy man.
The third year option enshrined in the original contract ensured that his previously modest basic would be uplifted by 66% - this would, more or less, equate to what the 'average' L1 player earned as a basic salary (according to FL figures). It's worth noting at this point that there were no agent premiums involved, indeed, I repeat that this was not a negotiated deal and that it was what the club placed beneath his pen in 2014.
Fast forward 18 months or so and he's reintroduced to the side and earning plaudits from the national media and, frequently, rival fans. He was having a genuine issue finding storage space for all the champagne he was accumulating (he's teetotal). At this juncture, he was verbally offered a new two-year deal (to run consecutive to the original) but the basic uplift had diminished to 22%. Although he had no agent acting for him at that time, he declined this offer out of hand.
Erhun's perspective at that time was Darragh was assuring fans that we had a option which we intended to exercise and that he, Erhun, would simply play his way to a more enduring deal on the basic terms of the 66% option uplift if no new deal was agreed in the summer. It was publicly stated at that time that the club intended "to sit down with him in the summer and negotiate a new contract". He was, as you might imagine, quite relaxed about all this at that particular time.
As ever, the scenario changed somewhat when Westley's arms-length approach started and Conor left, bringing about the signing of more players than we could actually have a use for. Unfortunately, players that should have been playing weren't and players exhausted-from-training were included in the starting XI. More than once, this included Erhun. Westley didn't ruin Erhun but he lost track of the best way to deploy him, or indeed, devise a match-winning strategy at all. Westley's not a complete mug and he did have some success in developing Grant's ideas but I always feared that this particular job would eventually have demands that he would find too difficult in due course.
Fast forward again to a few weeks ago and I spoke to Erhun whilst Grant was caretaking for the second time. He was genuinely excited that Grant might finally become manager and wanted to commit his long-term future to Posh if this proved to be the case. I urged him at this point to try and wrap things up before appointing a new agent. I offered to represent him for nothing if he had misgivings about negotiating (knowing full well that any latitude would be marginal at best) but suggested that simply having him and his dad engaging in an informal chat with Grant would be his best option all round.
Shortly afterwards, things became more complicated. Having been appointed, Grant will have been presented with more temporal chores like balancing a playing budget. He explained to Erhun that he certainly wanted him on board but that he could only offer the 22% uplift. He openly made it clear at that time that, should Erhun decline, the option wasn't going to be taken up and that the matter would be out of his hands. I wasn't surprised by any of this but I did note that Erhun had allowed himself to feel let down. At the same time, I understand that Grant too felt let down - he had always shown faith in Erhun and now he was asking Erhun to repay that faith and, rather than dwell on the basics, consider how much he would earn playing an important role in a promotion campaign.
