The background to how Preston North End landed striker Emil Riis Jakobsen

That came in the shape of Emil Riis Jakobsen arriving by private jet at Manchester Airport on Thursday.

North End tweeted a video of the plane taxiing in shortly before breaking the news on Thursday evening that the 22-year-old striker had been signed from Randers FC - a club tucked away in the north east of Denmark.

The fee is undisclosed but a £1.2m estimate wouldn't be far off.

Jakobsen has signed a four-year contract with PNE and if international clearance comes through, he will be pulling on the No.19 shirt at some point at Brentford on Sunday.

The Dane is Preston's first signing since early January when Scott Sinclair came in from Celtic.

Supporters were growing restless at no movement in the transfer window, every other club in the Championship having done some incoming business.

The fact that an enquiry for Seattle Sounders striker Jordan Morris hadn't led to anything caused much angst on social media - the asking price from Seattle was well into double figure millions.

Finally at 9.15pm last night, the anguish ended as Jakobsen was announced as a Preston player.

Jakobsen was a player North End had been aware of for some time but attempts to bring him to Deepdale revved up last week.

Talks between PNE and Randers were conducted amicably, a deal struck on Wednesday evening - allowing plans to be put in the place to get Jakobsen to England.

They had to apply for elite athlete status for Jakobsen so that he didn't have to quarantine for 14 days on his arrival.

The first part of his medical was done in Denmark on Thursday morning before he boarded a private jet arranged by his agent to fly him to Manchester.

Paperwork was signed and signing pictures taken in the private terminal before Jakobsen was driven to a private hospital in Newton-le-Willows for the second part of the medical - routine scans on his joints.

Once the results of those came back, North End announced the signing.

This is Jakobsen's second taste of English football, having been at Derby County as a youngster.

He had come through Randers' youth system, his form there attracting the attention of the Rams in 2015.

The striker scored regularly for their Under-18s and Under-23s side but was to return to Randers in 2018 via a short spell playing in Holland.

In first-team football at Randers, Jakobsen scored 18 goals in 72 appearances. He stands 6ft 3in but prefers to work with the ball at his feet - he's got pace too.

Peter Ridsdale, representative of PNE owner Trevor Hemmings, told the Lancashire Post: "We've had a few plates spinning with players and this one had been going on fully for about a week.

"We've known about him for a while, watched all of his games this season and studied the clips of him playing.

"As you do with signings, we've done the usual checks on him, done our homework.

"Our initial bid was turned down but we kept talking with Randers and they were brilliant to deal with.

"They were very professional about this, were clear about what they wouldn't accept and what they wanted - they were open and honest.

"Once we had agreed things, they worked very hard to get everything sorted at their end of the deal and get the paperwork in place."

Randers' sporting and commercial director Soren Pedersen said: "Emil has of course attracted a lot of interest. This is how it is with goal scorers who perform at both club and youth national team level.

"Therefore, we have always known that a sale could be a topic in this transfer window.

"However, we have been keen that it should be the right thing for both Emil and us, and here it was the offer from Preston that was most attractive.

"We are proud that the club can once again launch one of our talents and wish Emil good luck with another English adventure."

Jakobsen will return to Denmark on Monday for the international break.

He is currently in the Demark Under-21 squad - he only turned 22 in June so is still eligible this year - but is tipped to make the step-up to the full squad at some stage.

His arrival means North End now have a squad of 25 players over the age of 21, the limit allowed in the Championship this season.

That number doesn't include David Nugent who is being allowed to find another club.