Peter Ridsdale exclusive: Preston North End recruitment plan for summer transfer window

Preston North End director Peter Ridsdale is confident of having a strong summer transfer window, after discussions with four players last week.

The Lilywhites chief is over in Spain and has been in regular dialogue with boss Ryan Lowe. Next season will be the manager’s third full one at Deepdale and fourth overall. After 13th, 12th and 10th placed finishes, the plan this summer is to recruit players who will start regularly for North End and boost quality within the squad. The window officially opened last Friday and Preston are waiting to hear back from some of their targets.

“It’s great to be away for a couple of weeks but, I think as you know, we met a number of players down here last week,” said Ridsdale. “I just came off an international call now, about a Scandinavian player. Of the four we’ve met, one has been from England but on holiday. One has been English but not playing in England at the moment. And the other two are overseas players. To some extent, it is with the players. We know what the deals are with their wages and their clubs. Two or three of them have said that it’s been great meeting us and they want a few days to think about where they’re at.

“I am confident that we are progressing nicely. They know, when they are back from holiday, that they need to get themselves sorted in terms of pre-season training. As they are all contracted players to their clubs, they are not sitting there thinking they’re out of work in a couple of weeks. So, we’d have to get all of them out of their clubs as opposed to them being freely available. In some cases the clubs know we are talking and we know what the deal is.

“In other cases, I think the clubs are aware but the agents are telling us what they think the deal is. But, it’s just standard. We are trying to bring in players of a quality who will expect to start. The English market has become quite expensive, with aspirations on wages and transfer fees. They are no longer the same value for money as they were a few years ago. In the overseas market, certainly the salaries are easier to deal with when bringing them into England.

“And the transfer fees appear to be sensible, not challenging. Some of the players we’ve asked about in England, that we’d really like, I question whether the clubs will get the money. We’ve broadened our scope really, so we will see. We’ve got a very good list of players we’re interested in - three or four in each position, because there aren’t that many this year. Some are harder to identify, like left wing-back for example. I am confident that when we start this season, we’ll be stronger than when we finished last.”

Ridsdale mentions the difficulty of recruiting for the wing-back positions. Brad Potts has been the regular pick down the right while - over Lowe’s tenure - Robbie Brady, Liam Millar, Alvaro Fernandez and others have been deployed on the left. It’s another window of looking for players to operate wide and finding solutions won’t be easy.

“It is difficult,” said Ridsdale. “You either get classic right or left back, or players who are wingers and want to stay as wingers. And you’ve got those we’d quite like to turn into an attacking wing-back. Then you’ve got someone like Brad, who is Mr Consistent. Supporters keep saying we need a right wing-back and never sign one. The problem we’ve got is we are trying to attract someone into a position where, probably, one of the most consistent performers plays.

“At left wing-back, we took Liam last year. He, in his own mind, wanted to be a left winger. The rest of the squad naturally plays in a 3-5-2 or whatever it happens to be, but still with wing-backs. What we are not going to do is change the formation just to suit one particular player, so it’s a dilemma and it’s a challenge. It is one we will solve, but it is probably the hardest position to fill.”

Talk of a possible return for Millar has gone quiet since the end of the season. The Canada international, who scored five goals last campaign, will be back with parent club FC Basel. Millar’s contract there expires in 2025 and there have been links to the likes of Sunderland, Sheffield United and Burnley. Millar’s loan spell was an enjoyable one for all parties, but as things stand PNE are looking more closely at other options.

“We are not really far down the line with Liam anyway,” said Ridsdale. “Liam has been very honest with us, saying he loves the club and will come back tomorrow, but wants to play left wing. And we have said we love him and want him back tomorrow, but we want him to play left wing-back - so there is not a meeting of the minds, necessarily. If he returned from holiday and said he wanted to come back, then there might be a deal to be done.

“But, he is not currently number one on the list we’ve got. Everybody asks for a fee to start with. Do I think we could do a deal if Liam said he only wants to go to Preston? Yes, I do. He has only got a year left. Whilst the number started off at a big number, I don’t think it would end up at the same number if Liam said he wanted to join us. That’s not the issue at the moment. To be fair to Liam, he has been very honest with us. The issue is that he aspires to play in a position we don’t naturally start with, most weeks.”

As for the recruitment set-up at Deepdale, two key parties are MRKT Insights and chief scout James Wallace. The latter flew out to meet Ridsdale and speak with a player last week, while MRKT provide all the metrics Preston may need. Both were brought to the club by Lowe and Ridsdale is satisfied with their contributions to date.

“MRKT Insights are the data driven people and James then interfaces with them, by watching the players in person or on video,” said Ridsdale. “When we have the recruitment meetings, they both attend. So, I have met with them three or four times maybe, since the season finished. I have met with James, individually, more than that. I met him down here last week, with one of the players. So, their job is to essentially be in a position to present to Ryan and I who’s available, what it’d cost and what the data says. James tells us what the video says about them.

“Ryan then says what his preferred solutions are - one, two and three. And my job is to try and see who we can attract. Some of the meetings I have with Ryan. I had one last week, he is back in England. But, we speak most days. I spoke to him this morning about where we’re at and he’s relaxed, he’s fine. The call I just came off was with one of the players we were involved with last week, and his agent. MRKT Insights and James work very well together and they interface to the club in a very clear way.”

This time last year, North End signed eight players in total - six permanent and two on loan, those being Millar and Calvin Ramsay. This summer saw two senior squad members released, in Greg Cunningham and Ben Woodburn. Ridsdale has previously spoken about their being decent ‘scope’ for PNE to do business and he’s anticipating a handful of fresh faces - but probably not as many as the previous summer window.

“I would’ve thought it’s going to be four to five, if nobody goes,” said Ridsdale. “You are talking about a left wing-back, a centre-back, two midfield players and we might strengthen the strikers - given Layton (Stewart) is still young. It depends how he comes back and obviously Ched is going to be spending more time coaching than playing. That’s not the highest priority, because we have still got Emil, Milutin and Will.

“But, if there’s a striker there who can put the ball in the net, we wouldn’t say no. We’ll have to see. Right wing-back, it depends. We’ve been speaking to somebody who plays both sides and is from overseas. He sounds very exciting, so if we can attract him to the club that would solve two problems - because he can play either wing-back. He’s a young, very, very good player.”