‘Chalk and cheese’ - Ryan Lowe notes major Preston North End improvement he’s seen

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe believes the Lilywhites’s squad is ‘miles apart’ from where it was upon his arrival at Deepdale.

Appointed in December 2021, Lowe has now had four transfer windows to wheel and deal in. Preston relied rather heavily on the loan market in the first three of those, but made six permanent additions to the squad last summer. The PNE squad still contains plenty of players inherited by Lowe too.

North End signed eight new players in the most recent window and finished strongly, with Liam Millar and Milutin Osmajic snapped up on deadline day. Those final two recruits boosted optimism heading into the season and PNE then won six games in a row to build on the positivity.

North End are now reeling from a seven match winless run though, and Lowe said last week that Preston are still ‘building’ the squad - with another couple of transfer windows potentially needed to get everything required. Those comments were raised in Lowe’s latest press conference and PNE’s boss discussed the progress he believes has been made.

“I don’t think I need to say we’re a lot further down the line,” said Lowe. “I think the proof is in the pudding. I am not sitting here saying you need ten transfer windows to make sure you get a team right. We’ve had whatever we’ve had... four transfer windows. But, I don’t look at transfer windows, I just look at the squad we’ve got. You only have to look at where Preston North End have come from and the way the squad is now.

“The recruitment and the building of it... I hope I am right in saying this and I hope you agree with me - it’s chalk and cheese. It is miles apart. We had a discussion and, without naming any names, when I first came through the door I was like: ‘wow’. And that is no disrespect, but when you come through the door now, go into the dressing room and see the training, the standard has just gone from there to there. And that’s what happens when you get good quality players.”