What Graham Alexander told Preston North End staff on his first day as coaching team decision yet to be made

Graham Alexander has not ruled out keeping coaches who served under Paul Heckingbottom on his backroom staff as Preston North End manager.

Alexander arrived as the new Preston boss on September 28, leaving high-flying Bradford City in League One to return to Deepdale for a third time following Heckingbottom's departure.

Preston parted company with Heckingbottom on September 13 after he managed just one win in the first seven games of the new Championship season, with assistant manager Stuart McCall following him out of the door, but the rest of the coaching staff are still in place.

Jason Euell took over on an interim basis and was in charge of the 2-2 draw at Queen's Park Rangers before the international break.

Alexander has now taken the Preston hot seat and has been joined by long-term assistant Chris Lucketti, but no other coaching staff appointments have been made just yet.

When asked if there had been any progress in doing so by the Lancashire Post during his first press conference as boss, Alexander said: "I've not had any thoughts on that apart from Chris."

Alexander leaves door open for coaches to stay at PNE

The futures of Euell, Peter Murphy and goalkeeper coach Mike Pollitt remain up in the air, but Alexander has revealed there is every chance they could remain in his coaching set-up.

"When we've gone into different clubs, we've always inherited staff, and we're still really close friends with some from the past," the 54-year-old said.

“Sometimes there's a bit of change over. Sometimes people work for us at different clubs after that.

"I'm not one of these guys that, just because I don't know people, I write them off. I give everyone the opportunity, players, staff, to get on script with what we want and what we see our daily work being.

"So the initial conversations with the club were myself and Chris, and then it was down for me to make decisions as I see fit going forward and with the support of the club.

"If you look at the history of other clubs that I've took over, there are people still there and actually people who managed the club for significant spells, and they're still there now and still worked with me then."

However, Alexander stressed he will not shy from making big decisions with the aim of moving the club forward, telling the whole staff as much on his first day.

"So, we'll assess everything. Absolutely everything and any improvement we can make to make this club a winning club again, it's our duty. It's our responsibility to make decisions without a shadow of doubt.

"I've never shirked the decisions that I'm interested to make, and the same will be here. So that's the way it is, and I said pretty much the same to the staff yesterday."

Graham Alexander on his relationship with Chris Lucketti

Alexander has spoken at length about the importance of his No.2, Lucketti, saying he's a man he 'trusts with his life' and labelling the pair as a 'management duo.'

The new PNE gaffer went into more detail on their relationship and why they work so well together.

He said: "Chris has been with me since day one of my managerial career. We obviously played together for six years, so it's probably two decades now we've been next to each other.

"We've got a similar mindset on winning and competing first and foremost, we had a similar sort of history as players.

"We'll challenge each other from time to time, but there's nothing wrong with that as long as there's a trust there."