Preston North End need radical change - or investment - to escape Championship purgatory | OneFootball

The Lilywhites are set for an 11th straight season of Championship football

Not every season can be filled with thrills in football, with supporters experiencing ups and downs over the years.

That does not feel like the case, however, for Preston North End, who are slowly slipping into Championship purgatory.

North End are a fairly safe bet to be involved in the Championship next season, thanks to their healthy gap to both the play-offs and the relegation zone.

That would be 11 straight years in the second tier following promotion via Wembley in 2015 – a decade with very little to show for it.

Preston North End’s transfer strategy not particularly helping club's progression

Since returning to the second tier, Preston have not finished inside the play-offs, their best final position of seventh coming in the 2017/18 season under Alex Neil.

Whilst it is rare to see a number starting with two next to their name in the league standings, it is also uncommon for Preston to enjoy a single-digit finish come May each year.

Simply put, Preston are suffering in mid-table mediocrity. North End's board point to the fact that they have a modest budget, financial fair play restrictions, and the parachute payments for relegated Premier League clubs.

But frankly, Preston’s approach to recruitment is certainly not an efficient one.

They currently have nine players with expiring contracts this summer, as well as four loanees currently set to return to their parent clubs – although it should be mentioned that Sam Greenwood, on loan from Leeds, has a clause in his temporary switch for Preston to make the move permanent, should both parties want it.

Having lost Alan Browne for nothing to Sunderland last summer, there is concern that further key players could depart to Championship rivals this year.

Striker Emil Riis was reportedly being tracked by Sheffield United in January, with the striker confirmed by Heckingbottom as to wanting to see what is out there this summer in terms of other contracts on offer, and another player not to sign a new deal is goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, with FLW exclusively reporting in February that former loanee Daniel Iversen is being eyed up for a return on a permanent deal later this year.

Another damning indictment of Preston’s transfer strategy is how little they have made from sales in recent seasons.

Whilst the club has spent modestly, paying a few million here and there, with £2.1 million spent on record signing Milutin Osmajic and over £1.5 million on Lewis Gibson in January, they have not recouped anywhere near the same amount of money from selling players - their last significant exit would have been Callum Robinson's departure to Sheffield United in 2019 for a fee in the region of £8 million.

This again highlights the club’s tendency to lose key players on free transfers, but also suggests that the players they do recruit do not particularly impress their Championship rivals.

All of that should be a concern for Preston's board, who must re-think their transfer strategy. It should be no surprise that fans are calling for change, with a fan group writing an open letter to Craig Hemmings in late 2024 amid a period of unrest on the terraces.

Preston North End should look at fellow Championship stalwarts Bristol City

What will be even more concerning to Preston fans are the comments made by director Peter Ridsdale following the closure of the most recent transfer window.

Ridsdale pointed out how Preston have no chance of affording the players they have on loan from the Premier League on a permanent basis.

This highlights how the Lilywhites are quite content to plod along, plumping out their squad with bigger teams’ youngsters that they have no hope of keeping for longer than a year.

There is no ambition, no future goal that the club is seemingly content to invest in, and of course, Ridsdale knows one or two things about living beyond a club’s means based on his spell with Leeds United.

Although he denies most of his part in it, he was the chairman that saw United’s lavish spending blow-up in the club’s face, sending them from perennial Champions League qualifiers to League One languishers.

Such a catastrophic time as a football club owner would quite rightly put anyone off spending such ludicrous amounts again, but it appears the entire experience has pushed Ridsdale in completely the over direction.

Of course, Preston’s ownership could point to the fact that they are one of the most stable clubs in the Football League, but other clubs have combined stability with ambition.

Preston are usually lumped together with Bristol City, a fellow Championship stalwart.

However, one aspect where Bristol City have clear ambition is with their academy - which is not shared by Preston.

Aside from selling their academy gems for decent sums of money, namely Lloyd Kelly, Antoine Semenyo, Tommy Conway, and Alex Scott, Bristol City are able to supplement their playing squad with a host of academy players.

Liam Manning’s current Bristol City squad includes five players that came up through their academy, with Zak Vyner, Max O’Leary, and Cameron Pring all with over a century of appearances for the Robins under their belts.

In comparison, no Preston academy graduate has made an appearance for the senior team this season.

Kian Best looked the likelist after his somewhat breakthrough last season, but Ryan Lowe did not fancy the defender in the second half of 2023-24, with Heckingbottom taking a similar view - he is now on loan at Bohemians of Ireland until the summer, where he will become a free agent.

By focusing on their youth development, Preston could supplement their playing squad with local lads, and potential uncover a few talents that can be sold, allowing further investment into the team, but running a Category Three academy means that they are up against it compared to other north west clubs.

Preston’s current strategy will leave the club stale, and the club’s owners must think of ways to freshen things up.

If not, they should really think to sell up.