Peterborough United have given Hull City permission to speak to joint top scorer Aaron Mclean.

Mclean, 27, has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season and has notched 83 times in less than 200 games for the League One club since joining from non-league Grays four years ago.

Hull, with new owners Assem and Ehab Allam are keen to recruit in January and have had a bid rejected for Swindon striker Charlie Austin this week.

Peterborough director of football Barry Fry told the Peterborough Evening Telegraph:

“We are faced with a situation where we will probably lose money hand over fist.

“The chairman is continually putting his hand in his pocket and knowing him he will continue to do so. But if he asked for my advice in January about selling a player I’d tell him to go for it.

“I would probably have sold Aaron Mclean for £2million to Wolves when we had the chance and Craig Mackail-Smith to Leicester for £1.5million and George Boyd to Middlesbrough for the same, but the chairman has only ever been interested in winning football matches, not cashing in.”

Posh Owner MacAnthony said:

“Hull put a firm offer in, it was rejected and then they put an offer in that was accepted. It’s a sad day to see him go but he’s done us proud and now he gets to move on and have a chance to have a go at the Premier League if they get promoted this season.”

Hull are also linked with Mclean’s Posh strike partner Craig Mackail-Smith and it could be the pair leave in a £2 million deal together.

When Walsall make the trip to London Road on January 3rd, we could be facing a much depleted Posh forward line.