Recent evidence at Preston North End will leave some Derby & QPR transfer regret - it's a deal worth repeating | OneFootball

It has been nearly 11 months since Stefan Teitur Thordarson was unveiled as a Preston North End player, and he has been a star man for the club

It has been nearly 11 months since Stefan Teitur Thordarson was unveiled as a Preston North End player.

Thordarson, who has been capped 27 times by Iceland at the time of writing, was signed from Silkeborg IF in the Danish top division for an undisclosed fee in July 2024, in the wake of long-time captain Alan Browne’s free transfer to Sunderland upon the expiry of his PNE contract.

According to the Deepdale Digest, North End secured Thordarson’s services by paying a fee of around £700k to Silkeborg, landing the box-to-box midfielder’s signature ahead of fellow Championship sides Derby County and QPR.

Following not just Browne’s departure from the club, but also the releases of the attacking-minded Ben Woodburn and prospect Lewis Leigh in the summer of 2024, to reinforce the midfield was a priority for PNE going into last season.

By signing Thordarson ahead of interested rival parties, Preston proved not only that they can be competitive with the teams around them in the transfer market when it suits, but also that they can do this on a European stage, not just a domestic one.

The R's interest in the midfielder was quite prominent too, with Danish outlet Tipsbladet reporting that Thordarson's journey to England was meant to take him to Loftus Road for a medical - instead, he wound up at Deepdale for the same reason.

Thordarson showed his class as the season came to a close

Last season, despite a fairly dismal league campaign in the Championship which saw Paul Heckingbottom’s men finish 20th in the table, Thordarson’s integration into the squad and subsequent impact on the way PNE play has been a shining light for fans.

In 2023/24, in Denmark, the 26-year-old scored 11 times and made two assists in 36 matches for Silkeborg IF. Despite not reaching those numbers quite so easily in his first season at Deepdale, he was still a key figure.

After missing out on Thordarson, Derby snapped up former loanee Ebou Adams permanently, and QPR landed on Jonathan Varane. Whilst all three men's appearance and goal contribution numbers are competitive, it's clear to see that the Iceland man's progressive playing style has shone through with more shot-creating actions per game than what Derby and QPR's midfield recruits are managing.

Of course, Adams is highly-rated by Derby supporters, whilst Varane has earned a new long-term deal at QPR. Both sets of supporters will tell you they are happy with the men they signed in the summer of 2024, yet the North End faithful will tell you they have got the best person for the job.

Thordarson is bettered by Adams when it comes to goal contributions, but the Derby man has made five more appearances. Varane's pass completion is marginally better than the Preston man, too, but 1.25 average shot-creating actions more per game has the Deepdale favourite clear. If the Derby or QPR decision-makers are watching enough of Preston, their regrets will be there.

He also went largely uncredited for one of his most important chance creations in Preston’s entire season during their FA Cup Round of 16 victory against Burnley.

His pinpoint long pass from inside his own half picked out Andrew Hughes’ overlapping run down the left flank. The Welshman’s subsequent cross found Will Keane to score PNE’s third in a 3-0 drubbing of their fierce rivals, and seal their place in the quarter-finals for the first time in nearly 60 years - that goal isn’t scored without Thordarson’s input.

After he broke his goal contribution duck in late January with a fine strike against Middlesbrough, he then scored what the LEP called a “wonderfully taken” winner against Portsmouth in mid-March.

He went on to bag a header in a 2-2 draw with Cardiff City, where Thordarson himself showed some frustration post-match that PNE “were in full control” but failed to see out the win.

The 28-year-old also notched two assists throughout the second half of the season, in a 2-1 local derby defeat to Blackburn Rovers and a hard-fought 1-1 draw with eventually promoted Sunderland.

Why it's worth PNE considering repeating deals like this in Scandinavia

This is not the first time that Preston have ventured to Northern Europe for their key imports, be that in terms of players’ nationalities, or their previous clubs.

Perhaps the most prominent example in recent years, until Thordarson, is striker Emil Riis. The Dane signed for the Lilywhites in the summer of 2020 for what the club called a “substantial undisclosed fee” from Randers FC in the Danish Superliga.

In five years in the North West of England, Riis scored 46 goals and made 12 assists across 186 games. His most successful season by far was 2021/22, when he bagged 20 in all competitions as PNE finished 13th in the league and made the fourth round of the EFL Cup.

Another player of Scandinavian descent who has found success at Deepdale over the last half-decade is Daniel Iversen. Also Danish, the goalkeeper enjoyed a very well-received year and a half at Preston during two different loan spells, and he earned fan admiration throughout.

Iversen managed 23 clean sheets in 71 competitive games for Preston – a record that encouraged the club to go right back to the 27-year-old this summer in their search for a new number one goalkeeper. He was announced to be returning to the club on a four-year deal earlier this week.

Preston even have more Nordic depth in their current midfield. The forward-thinking Mads Frokjaer-Jensen has managed 20 goal contributions in 87 appearances across two full seasons at Deepdale.

If Thordarson can continue his form from the back half of last season into the next one for Paul Heckingbottom’s side, then that will be even further proof that Preston’s shopping spree in Scandinavia is a source of Championship quality players.