Alex Neil exclusive: Preston North End tenure in his own words - from transfer targets to West Brom and Stoke City approaches

Alex Neil has made peace with it now, but his time in the Preston North End hot seat is something he still thinks about a lot - and it will always be a case of what could’ve been. Both parties have moved on to pastures new and embarked on different journeys since, but this was a Deepdale era which promised so much and deserved to finish on a better note than it did.

Neil’s tenure came to a sorry end in March 2021, with no supporters in stadiums and his team a shadow of the one he inherited, coached and mentored over a sustained period. It is five months since the Scot - still based in the city - was in work. He’s managed Sunderland and Stoke City, but the PNE days are still fresh in the mind and Neil is ready to discuss them in detail. Mentally refreshed after some important months of rest and reflection, post-Potters, the 42-year-old arrives in sunny Preston, grabs a coffee and takes his seat.

And we go back to the start - 2017 - when Neil was actually wondering who Sunderland were going to appoint. Of course, Simon Grayson proved to be that man and - after being told by Peter Ridsdale that he was the club’s number one candidate, it was up to Lancashire. Neil travelled to speak with Preston on the Monday and never returned to Norwich, until North End played them 13 months later. So, what were his expectations of the club and team? And, how did that match up with what he walked in and saw on day one?

“I wasn’t sure about the squad at the time,” Neil told the Lancashire Post. “You had just lost Aiden McGeady in the summer who was, I think, far and away the best player in the year before. So, I wasn’t naive in the fact I was looking and thinking it could be a really difficult job. But, I think they finished well, winning the last few games. I knew Aiden from Celtic and different things and thought he was going to be a really difficult one to replace.

“Preston was certainly something back towards the north and I looked at it as a really stable job. Simon had been there for four years and, albeit I’d been promoted with Hamilton and Norwich, I had only managed for two-and-a-half years. I hadn’t gained the experience I probably needed, to feel established as a manager at that stage. I felt I needed a job where they’d help me and give me time to work and develop. And to be fair, Preston was all of that.”

Things started excellently, at a packed out Deepdale. The Lilywhites saw off Sheffield Wednesday - play-off finalists the previous season - with Daniel Johnson tucking home a late penalty. North End had been competitive and committed for two years, in the league, under Grayson. But there was now a fearlessness and flair about Preston. Neil couldn’t have been more pleased with the start, as a belief started to bubble around the football club.

“That squad is my favourite squad from anywhere I’ve ever been,” he said. “That core of players I had... I think it’s been well documented that there were three strong occasions where I could’ve left. I chose not to, because of that squad and that team. I felt that I owed it to them, to try and get the club into the play-offs and into the Premier League. The difficulty is that you are always liable to losing them - because they were such a good group of players.

“Slowly but surely, they sort of dropped off one-by-one. But, ultimately, I think you are judged as a coach in one of two ways. Either, you win enough games and get promoted, or you develop players and they move on - because you generate money for the business in that sense, or take the business into a better league. And not only the people, in terms of the players, but the area - I still live here. I really enjoy it, associate with it and have a lot in common with northern people.

“I think there are always a couple of things you need when you go into any club. I think, if your main players in the team are your best characters and buy into what you are doing, then that in itself is gold dust. And we had unbelievable characters, in that squad. Tom Clarke, Paul Huntington, Paul Gallagher - and then a younger group coming through, who were brilliant. When you start to look at that, you had good people, good players and great characters.

“They had a real thirst for learning, as well. Even with guys like Gally - who had been there, seen it and done it - I am sure he would tell you that the combination of me coming in, as a young and enthusiastic coach and them wanting to develop and the determination they had, was great. I never really felt I needed to get them up for games. They had an internal drive and the standards they would upkeep... I can’t speak highly enough of that squad. I got them at the perfect time.

“And that northern grit, which I could call it, was a key ingredient as well. We were aggressive. For my four seasons there, I think in three of them we were the best or second best pressing team in the league. If you’ve got legs and aggression, like Alan Browne, Ben Pearson, DJ and Ben Davies had - Tom Barkhuizen could run all day, Jordan Hugill was a big battering ram and Darnell Fisher loved a tackle - those boys didn’t want to sit off any team. They wanted to get up against them.”

Neil touched on his players, over the years, leaving the group. Hugill was the first to go, but his exit could’ve come earlier than the January of the Scot’s first season. West Ham United came calling with a seven-figure bid and North End’s number nine departed for the Premier League. It looked like the centre-forward could be off after just four matches, though.

“What a lot of people don’t know - and you’ve got to give the club a lot of credit for this, mainly Mr Hemmings but Peter as well - is that we got an offer in August,” said Neil. “We played Reading at home and Jordan was unplayable that day. We won 1-0, Jordan scored and he was literally man handling their defence. After that game, with two days of the window to go, Reading made a £8m bid for Jordan. Mr Hemmings asked Peter to ask what my views on it where. My view at the time was that it was a lot of money for the club.

“With me, everywhere I’ve been, I have always tried to make the best decision for the club - even in the short-term if it’ll damage myself and make it harder to win games. With Jordan, it was a case of it being a lot money - but the issue was the timeframe. We didn’t have enough time to replace him. Mr Hemmings, to be fair to him, said: ‘Right, OK, reject it’ - which I could not believe. We managed to keep Jordan and he was in double figures by the time he left, when we got the money anyway. It was tough to find someone like Jordan; when you are selling someone for £8m, we had a wage structure at that time which the club was very reluctant to break.

“The problem you had, was that if you spent more than £1m they were arguably going to break the structure. We were, one: reluctant to spent £1m - not because we couldn’t, but because we couldn’t afford the wages to back it up. We, basically, were in a window where we had up to £1m to replace Jordan - who we were selling for £8m. The reason it was within £1m was because, anyone in that bracket, we could arguably afford - without breaking the structure. To get someone for £1m, when you are selling someone for £8m, is hard to do. If you could do that all the time, you would, wouldn’t you? That was a big challenge.”

Neil’s first season saw Preston finished seventh, with the play-off chase going down to the final day of the season. North End did their bit, beating Burton Albion, but Derby County took all three points at home to Barnsley and nicked sixth. Losing to the Rams in April is a game that still sticks in Neil’s mind, with his team having missed a penalty and conceded a dreadful goal at Deepdale. Nonetheless, it was on to the next campaign, looking to go one better.

Season one started about as well as anyone could’ve hoped, with one defeat in the first 12 fixtures. By contrast, 2018/19 yielded just five points from the first 10 matches. But, having beaten Leeds United away in the cup, with ten men, Preston’s league campaign started to turn after a mental October draw at Aston Villa. North End came from 2-0 down to lead at Villa Park, before conceding in the 91st minute and then saving a penalty deep into injury time. A bonkers night, but one Neil firmly believes was pivotal for him and the team. The struggles prior to that, is something he is happy to hold his hand up and take responsibility for.

“What I did that summer was look at every team to go up and they dominated the ball,” said Neil. “We felt like we were middle-of-the-pack in that sense. So, albeit pressing wise were brilliant and our defensive structure was really good, we didn’t have enough control of the ball. I felt as if Ben Davies had developed for a year and Ben Pearson had played an extra year. We had Josh Harrop, who I was trying to incorporate into the team more - he could hold on to the ball and dribble.

“And arguably, I did it too quick - the team wasn’t ready for it, hence the reason why we weren’t winning enough of the first ten games. The Villa one was a turning point and QPR away. I just think, in that team, when belief started to really kick in, you could see it and you could smell it. There was a good atmosphere, they liked each other and spent time with each other. That squad wasn’t far away and not getting them into the play-offs is one thing I will always look back on.”

Neil mentions Davies - a player who had been out on several loan spells in lower leagues, prior to his breakthrough season at Preston in 2017. The academy graduate blossomed into an outstanding centre-half and eventually earned an incredible move to Liverpool. When Neil arrived at North End, it didn’t take long for him to realise the potential. But, one of his first acts as boss was to step in and ensure a sale wasn’t sanctioned.

“I’ll be honest with you, that summer we had an offer from Fleetwood and the club were going to take it,” said Neil. “I had watched the play-offs - he played on the left of a back three and had a good game in the play-off semi-final. When I walked in the building, Tom Clarke was injured and I only had Tommy Spurr as a left-sided centre-back. I think Tommy started the first couple of games and then replaced him with Ben, after the third game maybe. And yeah, you could see the qualities Ben had. I thought: ‘Woah, we’ve got a player here’. He just had so much.”

In the space of seven days, in March of that second season, PNE beat Blackburn Rovers away from home, came from behind to win at Middlesbrough in midweek and then snatched victory in the 94th minute, at home to Birmingham City. After those nine points, the play-off charge looked right on - but four points from the final seven games killed any chances. Not guiding Preston to the top six is a regret Neil will always have, heightened by the fact he’d have backed himself and the team to go all the way - had they finished in there.

“We were arguably a top eight team weren’t we?” said Neil. “In my view, that is the closest Preston have been in a number of years - in terms of genuinely going up. I think, like Alan (Browne) said, if we had made the play-offs we would’ve stood a good chance. When you lose Jordan, Greg and then Callum just after that - no disrespect to the other lads coming in, but we never went ‘Whack, there is a top replacement’ - for like £3m, or even half the money we had brought in. I think everybody felt the same, but the wage structure was the difficulty at the club.

“I think that is where it always fell short, not that it was a case of the club not wanting to spend £2/3m. Every time we wanted to spend money, the wages naturally went to a level that just wasn’t going to happen - at the time. And I think that is probably where my frustration was - and even some of the players in the team at that time, because if you spoke to any of them I think they would probably all say we were one or two players away. And if we got those one or two, we felt we could’ve made it.”

The opportunities to leave were mentioned earlier in the conversation, by PNE’s ex-boss. West Brom were the first club to come calling and, after a 4-1 defeat away to the Baggies, there was a feeling in the Preston away end that Neil was off. However, he signed a three-year contract just four days after that defeat. And that decision boiled down to the answer to one simple question.

“I’m not going to lie, of course it entered my mind,” said Neil. “I think there are three things. Are you happy in your workplace and do you enjoy what you do? That’s a big thing for me. There are then the actual financial gains, for you and your family. That is obviously a big thing, because you can find yourself out of work as a coach quite quickly - football is cut-throat. And then, I think the third thing is what you want your career to look like. Where do you want to go?

“What do you want to do? The first one, arguably, was the one that always kept me at Preston. I enjoyed my job, the people I was working with and looked forward to going into work every day. That was overwhelmingly a yes, every single time and every single day. You can probably put it as a criticism of me, but I was so invested - individually and collectively - with all those players I had. They kept me there, yeah.”

A wry smile emerges as the chat moves on to transfer targets, from Neil’s time at the club. Joe Savage was Head of Recruitment and Peter Ridsdale would always travel with the manager, to go and watch players live. That could mean driving to and from Bristol or Cardiff in midweek, with very little sleep prior to training. The hours put in were extensive and the agony of missing out on a signing never got easier. It was often attacking players, who more often than not make all the difference on match day.

“Oh, there was loads, honestly,” said Neil. “It makes me feel sick sometimes, when I’m sat thinking about it. Originally, our main replacement for Jordan was Kieffer Moore. We tried to sign Kieffer about four times, because he has got everything. He is six-foot-three, can run, head it, hold the ball, is a danger in the box and can also stretch it in behind. He was a massive one. When we lost Callum, Jamal Lowe was the replacement. Wigan had gone bust at that point, really, so you were nicking him. I think the deal ended up something like £750k, when they had paid £2.75m for him from Portsmouth. He went to Swansea, so we lost him. Sammie Szmodics was another one - Joe (Savage) sort of looked at it and really liked. Adam (Armstrong) just chose Blackburn, which was a disappointing one. Me and Peter had set up a meeting at Peter’s house, to speak to Adam.

“But, we always knew, because of his and Tony’s relationship - and we literally got a phone call the night before we were meant to meet him, to say ‘Adam’s had a think’. It wasn’t a good phone call to receive, so that was that one. We went to Rhian’s (Brewster) house and met him. He was another one. We did huge amounts, in terms of trying to attract players. Peter always used to say we needed to work harder and smarter than everyone else, because we weren’t going to be spending £5/6/7m on a player. If you look at the players we brought in on loan, they weren’t the players they are now. When we signed Mavididi, that signing got slaughtered - but the talent was always there. Scouting and recognising players, is recognising it before they become a player.

“That is the key for a team like Preston, because you’re not going to get them once they’re ready made. Lukas Nmecha, Sepp van den Berg, Anthony Gordon, Stephy Mavididi - some really good, talented boys there. Don’t get me wrong, you are always going to have others that don’t work out - guys like Tom Bayliss maybe, who didn’t play as much as we would’ve liked. The one thing I will say about Tom, who I felt really sorry for... he was a good player and really good lad, but in my view he was trying to break into the strongest part of our team. Paul Gallagher, Ben Pearson, Alan Browne and Daniel Johnson, when they were on it, was a top six Championship midfield in my view. And Ryan (Ledson) had come in as well, who was trying to fight his way in. There was a lot of hype around him and I remember having conversations with Peter, that summer.

“I was banging the drum about trying to invest some of the money we’d brought in for players. I think, from a club perspective, Peter wanted to make sure we’d invest the money in someone who could be there for the next five or six seasons - whose game is still to mature a bit, but has got financial growth as well as player growth. Tom was highlighted - Joe went and watched him and we watched lots of videos. But, certainly in my experience of doing this, I think you can scout and watch as many players as you’d like. Until they come into your own environment and you see them among your own players, that’s when you’ll know - and you’ll know really quickly, whether you feel they will kick-on or not. That squad saw players off really quickly, it was cut-throat. I remember signing players and within two weeks I could think: ‘They are going to eat him up’.

Two years into the job, Neil’s third summer saw Patrick Bauer, David Nugent, Andre Green and the aforementioned, Bayliss, arrive. That business didn’t exactly send expectations soaring on the terraces, especially with Callum Robinson having left for a promoted Sheffield United. But, the team started on fire - losing just three of the first 16 games. Performances tailed off with the turn of the year, but North End were still in the play-off spots when Covid saw the season put on pause with nine games to go. When play resumed, two wins saw Preston fall out of the top six and miss out once again. The behind-closed-doors contests were something Neil despised.

“Covid absolutely killed us,” said Neil. “We were a high pressing, high energy and aggressive team - to play that way, you play off the crowd a little bit. The crowd played a big, big factor in that and I didn’t realise how much of a factor they played until we didn’t have them. I wrote it off, not worrying about it until we played our first two games back - and I thought: ‘This isn’t the same...’. It didn’t suit us. We had built up for two years, nearly getting there.

“That third season, we started really well and we were all thinking: ‘This is the year... we are going to get there’. Then, Covid happened. We were in the top six and what we were talking about at the time, was that we would’ve finished in the play-offs if they’d done it on final standings. The Luton game was the game... I remember it vividly. We’d played really well in the first half and didn’t start the second half well, but we got the goal. I remember I made a decision, because Alan played right back that game. I put him in the middle of the pitch and took Gally off.

“The reason I did it was that they were pinning us back in and Gally didn’t want to play up against somebody. I put Alan in against his man, Darnell in as a natural right back and McMamanan drifted into the middle of the pitch. Darnell didn’t go with him and that’s where the goal came from. I play that back in my mind about 100 times. They are the decisions that can sway the game in your favour, if you get it right. But, logically, if I think about it back I would arguably do the same thing - although I know the outcome. You will always look back and think, of course you will.”

North End had gone top of the Championship in November of that season, for the first time since 2006. Gallagher’s penalty, away to Charlton Athletic, was enough to seal victory at The Valley. It is a day and journey home players have spoken about since - with confidence oozing throughout the squad. Preston had been dealt a scare on the eve of the Sunday clash, mind, with Neil said to be on his way to Stoke. That was very much on the cards, but PNE kept hold of their boss.

“It was a really strange week,” said Neil. “The Stoke thing was really close to happening. I called a meeting the night before, to tell them I wasn’t going. I nearly went... it was probably the closest I came to going. But again, there was just something inside me saying: ‘I’m not sure that is the right move’. Sometimes, you just need to go with your gut. Certainly, looking back, financially for myself it was like: ‘Wow’. But, I don’t regret it one bit’.”

Either side of the new year, disappointing 0-2 home defeats were suffered against Reading and Middlesbrough. Preston recovered, though, picking up 14 points from the next possible 18. That January finished with Scott Sinclair as the sole arrival - a transfer window which is reflected on by many supporters as disappointing. Sean Maguire, in an interview last year, shared his belief that the window to have a go was that one. As for Neil, the manner in which that season finished is more of a gripe than the January. That isn’t to say there wasn’t frustration around transfers, mind.

“Scotty was very different to Callum,” said Neil. “When we lost Callum, we never really replaced him. I loved working with Callum - naturally talented, an eye for goal and an enthusiasm for the game. We spent so much time with him. He was a bit huffy with himself - he got frustrated with himself easily - but was really talented. When he left, as an inside forward off the left, he was probably as good as you would’ve got in the Championship at that point. I probably reflect on Covid more than the January, if I am honest. But, I always felt over my time at Preston, you were replacing £3m, £7m or £8m with a free, £750k or £1m. When I left, David Healy was still the most expensive player Preston had bought. That was probably always the frustrating thing. I think you’d have got Kieffer Moore at Barnsley for less than £2m.”

The discussion is heading towards Neil’s final season but on the topic of player sales, Davies and Pearson are brought back up. These were two of the division’s outstanding performers at the time, never mind PNE’s. But, their eventual sales to Liverpool and AFC Bournemouth - respectively - brought in a fraction of their combined worth. While Covid led to very few transfer fees being splashed, Neil thinks the situation with both players should’ve been handled better.

“I am sure, from a club perspective - I know you don’t want to look back and harp on about things - but we should’ve had them signed up a year well in advance,” said Neil. “We were sort of trying to do it, but we were and we weren’t - if you like. I think, if we really went out and committed to it, we could’ve done it. I think we sort of skirted around the edges a bit and the simple fact is, if we weren’t going to do it with 12 months remaining, we should’ve sold them. It really is as simple as that. And I have never been against that, in fact my advice would be - if we can’t get them signed up - we need to cash in within the last 12 months. For me, those two players should’ve been tied up - which I am sure the club will say they tried to do - or sold. I think, if you’d sold the two of them, you would’ve got in excess of £10m.”

The pair left in January of the following season, with Pearson’s desire to leave having been made public on the final day of the previous campaign. Darnell Fisher’s time at Deepdale also concluded, with nine players signed in total - Emil Riis the only one of those snapped up in the summer. ‘Chaos’ is a word put to Neil to describe that final campaign - frustration in him was evident at the time and consistency was proving a struggle for the team, who barely drew a game. And in the background, the contract saga only added to the pressure.

“My recollection of the last season is a strange one, because for the first three years I think everything was relatively settled, everyone was determined and we had a goal,” said Neil. “I felt the club, squad and fans were all angling towards that. There was no distraction, negativity or frustration - only whether we could’ve won that game or played a bit better today. In the fourth season, we either played really well and won or played really poorly. Maybe not poorly, but lost... there were a lot of scruffy games.

“The contract situation was starting to tick about and if memory serves me right, Fish left in the January as well. Tommy B had a year left too. I just felt, probably for the first time, that the two Bens, Alan and DJ - instead of being focused on what we were doing, you could tell they were now looking and thinking: ‘Right, am I staying here or am I going?’ I think, at one point, I was looking and thinking: ‘These could all go’. That was really distracting and for me, I probably could’ve handled it a bit better.

“But, like I said before - which probably ended up being a weakness in my fourth year - it was how invested I was in them and that team. When Fish left in the January as well, that was another difficult one. Darnell was my first signing and I had a soft spot for him. He was probably a player you liked as a fan, because he gave you everything. He could be a bit frustrating at times, but he was a good, honest character. Fish didn’t want to leave, as well, which made it a bitter pill to swallow. He wanted to stay.

“I think what happened was that we got an offer from Middlesbrough and - like with the Jordan offer - if the club said it was good enough then it would accept it. And you move on, which is ultimately what happened. Middlesbrough made an offer for Darnell and the club, I think, felt it was a sufficient offer at that point, to let him go. At that point, the team was breaking up and I felt that my team was getting further from the play-offs rather than closer. I found that really difficult to accept; I had put everything in for the last three-and-a-half years.”

The Scotsman’s task, as manager, was to flip straight to this new-look team and put all of his energy into them. Neil openly admits that was a great challenge and that he found it tough to give Preston’s new recruits what they deserved. That is one period at the club he looks back on and wishes he could’ve coped better with, but his feeling for the old group was so strong.

“I found that hard, I am not going to lie,” said Neil. “And I think the players knew I found that hard as well. I think that then became difficult for them, because if you’re that new group you’re thinking: ‘Wait a minute, they are not here anymore - you need to focus on us and help us’. And don’t get me wrong, I was doing it as best as I could at the time. It was just tough. I am quite an emotional person. When something upsets me, I find it really hard to shake it off or let it go. From a management perspective, that can be a weakness. I could’ve handled it better, but at the time, with that team coming to the end of it’s cycle, I felt the end of my cycle was where it was going.”

So much is discussed over the course of the 80 minute interview. Neil’s ode to Alan Browne, view on the Lilywhites’ academy and account of signing Ched Evans is to come in follow-up pieces - and can be listened to in podcast form. The 42-year-old’s exit is where this rounds up, with a 0-1 defeat to Luton Town, at Deepdale, his final match in the dugout. Walking away from something he had put so much into and believed that much in wasn’t easy, but Neil has had more than enough time to process it. There is a lot of fondness about July 2017 to March 2021 for him, even if the question hanging over it will always be: ‘What if?’.

“It’s a bit of a mix, because like anything else you go through stages of grief don’t you?” said Neil. “That is how it feels, because there’s always a bit of resentment, frustration, disappointment and anger to start with. Then, you sit back, analyse, reassess and look at what you’ve done, what you did wrong and where it went to. I think the thing that stuck with me, like I say, is that there were probably three occasions I could’ve left. I chose not to, then when I did leave in the fourth year, I think you look back and feel you should’ve left on your terms - rather than the opposite.

“To be honest, I could’ve certainly handled parts of that fourth year better. I was too emotionally involved in the squad and players and I struggled with that team coming to an end, really. I thought we were regressing slightly, which happens, because if you think of the cycle of a team - there’s the stage of putting it together, improving and then the best stage. That is when you are really nearly achieving something and you’re either going to achieve it, or start selling some of them - which starts the cycle again.

“When you are starting on that way down, as a coach, for me, that is hard to accept I think. But, in hindsight now, looking back, I am really grateful I got the opportunity to manage the team. I have got so much in common with Preston - the area, the outlook of the team and what it was like. I loved the squad and loved my job working at Preston, hence why I chose not to leave. And really, I only have positive memories. It’s just one of those ones, where you always feel you’re one or two players away from that next step. And I think that’s where Preston fans probably are, in terms of their frustration. Everyone probably feels: ‘We are a really stable, Championship team now... what is the next step? How do we take the next step?’ That will be the challenge for the club.”