CHERRIES chairman Eddie Mitchell is keen to quickly draw a line under Jason Pearce’s on-off transfer saga.

Inspirational team captain Pearce was last week heavily linked with a £500,000 move to Championship new boys Peterborough.

But, while Posh director of football Barry Fry claimed Cherries had accepted an offer for the 23-year-old, Mitchell insisted no deal had been agreed.

It then emerged that Cherries would have to stump up 50 per cent of any sale to Pearce’s former club Portsmouth, as revealed exclusively by the Daily Echo on Saturday.

CHERRIES chairman Eddie Mitchell is keen to quickly draw a line under Jason Pearce’s on-off transfer saga.

Inspirational team captain Pearce was last week heavily linked with a £500,000 move to Championship new boys Peterborough.

But, while Posh director of football Barry Fry claimed Cherries had accepted an offer for the 23-year-old, Mitchell insisted no deal had been agreed.

It then emerged that Cherries would have to stump up 50 per cent of any sale to Pearce’s former club Portsmouth, as revealed exclusively by the Daily Echo on Saturday.

The sizeable sell-on – agreed between the two clubs when Pearce joined Cherries on a free from Fratton Park in 2007 – scuppered any chance of the defender leaving for the reported fee.

And the move all but bit the dust over the weekend when Portsmouth officials told Mitchell they would not be prepared to compromise on the clause.

Pearce, who polled a landslide victory to be crowned supporters’ player of the year, still has two years left to run on his current contract with Cherries.

Mitchell told the Daily Echo: “We spoke to Portsmouth and they said what reason would they have to reduce it.

“They were not interested in changing it. It is no great hardship to us.

“If Portsmouth were to come back and say they would change this or that then maybe it might be rekindled.

“But people have got to remember that Jason wasn’t put up for sale and he would be the last player we would want to sell.”

Mitchell, who declined to reveal the finer details of the offer tabled by Peterborough, added: “We were disappointed the offer came in for Jason because he had not been marketed for sale.

“It was then bewildering when reports of a fee and our acceptance came out. That is not the way we would do business and it didn’t help the situation at all.

“It was very surprising to see what was in his file. We weren’t part of the club then and it wasn’t something we would have entered into.”

Mitchell, meanwhile, confirmed talks were ongoing with Mathieu Baudry and Ben Williamson regarding new contracts.