Marcus Maddison’s name followed Sunderland around for years. It was whispered in transfer columns whenever the Black Cats needed a spark in midfield. The Marcus Maddison transfer talk always had the same shape. A gifted playmaker tearing up League One, and a bigger club supposedly circling. Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony has now set the record straight. It is not the story most of us assumed.
The truth behind the Marcus Maddison Sunderland transfer rumours
Despite years of speculation, Sunderland never actually put in a bid for Maddison. MacAnthony’s account of that period makes clear that the interest which turned into hard cash. Serious negotiation came from elsewhere entirely.
It is worth remembering that Wearside and Birmingham have crossed paths in the transfer market before. Sunderland fans will recall Birmingham’s interest in Will Buckley, which eventually became a loan deal that took him to St Andrew’s. That history matters here. It was Birmingham, not Sunderland, who did the real chasing when Maddison became available.
How Birmingham City’s £1.5m bid for Maddison actually unfolded
According to Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony, Birmingham City were the club who pushed hardest for Maddison during his peak years at London Road. In his own account, MacAnthony refers to Maddison by the nickname Barry. That is how he described the scale of Birmingham’s opening offer.
“Birmingham had been on to Barry. Birmingham offered Barry close to the £1.5m. It was £1m plus another £500,000 in add-ons and all the bits and pieces.”
That deal fell apart. Money was the problem. Peterborough needed funds immediately. Not a promise for later in the year.
“But the problem with that deal is that they didn’t want to start paying until the summer. We went back to Birmingham and said ‘that doesn’t work for us, we need something now.’ We had our own business to do. With Financial Fair Play we needed that cap room.”
Birmingham did not give up there. A second offer arrived on January 18. For a moment it looked like Maddison was genuinely on his way. MacAnthony believed the transfer would go through.
“Then, Birmingham came back with a second offer (on January 18). We felt at that stage he’d definitely go there because Marcus told me himself he’d definitely go to Birmingham. But then it came down to money. He didn’t want to go there. His agents dragged it out. He dragged it out. It wasn’t happening.”
Contrast that level of detail with the Sunderland links, and the difference is stark. There was no bid. No agreed fee, and no personal terms conversation. It was speculation that never became reality. Contradicted by the club chairman who was actually in the room for the deal that did happen.
Inside Maddison’s standout 2017/18 season at Peterborough United
None of this interest came from nowhere. Maddison earned it with a genuinely brilliant campaign in 2017/18, one that explains why a Championship club was prepared to move for a League One winger.
He finished that season with 12 goals and 22 assists in 53 appearances for Peterborough. Numbers that would stand out at any level below the Premier League. Twenty-two assists in a single campaign is an extraordinary return for a wide player. It is easy to see why scouts kept turning up at London Road.
Maddison was direct. Unpredictable and difficult to mark. The kind of player who could win a game on his own from a standing start. It is exactly why so many clubs, Sunderland included in the rumour mill if not in reality, were said to be watching him.
From League One stardom to prison sentence and loss of freedom
What happened next makes for uncomfortable reading. Maddison’s career never reached the heights that 2017/18 season promised. His life away from football took a devastating turn.
In August 2023, Maddison was sentenced to 20 months in prison for a grievous bodily harm attack on a 60-year-old woman in Darlington. It is a shocking fall for a player once considered one of the best attacking talents outside the Championship.
Maddison addressed the consequences himself in a statement on Instagram. Reflecting on what the conviction had cost him.
“(I) have paid for it heavily with the loss of my job, home & freedom.”
It is a sobering end to a story that once involved genuine transfer interest from a Championship club and years of unfounded talk linking him with Sunderland. The Marcus Maddison transfer saga was never about Wearside at all. Full detail on Birmingham’s pursuit and MacAnthony’s account can be found in Darragh MacAnthony’s transfer comments. Laying out exactly how close that deal came before collapsing, and how far Maddison has fallen since.
