'All we can do' - Ryan Lowe explains Liam Millar hurdle Preston North End may face in summer transfer window

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe wants to sign Liam Millar permanently this summer, but says FC Basel could price the Lilywhites out of a move.

The Canada international has been a hit during his season-long loan at Deepdale. Former Liverpool man, Millar, has scored five goals and assisted as many, in his 32 appearances for North End. There was no buy-option inserted in the loan, last summer, so if Preston want to sign Millar they will need to make an offer that the Swiss club are happy with.

“I think Peter is on with it,” said Lowe. “Listen, Liam - I won’t go into too much detail on what we speak about - but he loves it here. He has found a home here, his family are all here and his mum and dad are not far from here. He loves it, but again he is not our player - there is a football club that own him, paid money for him and value him. Depending on what those values are; it’s tough isn’t it, because if you look at the players we’ve had here before - we’ve given game time to them, coached them, they’ve performed and then gone for big bucks.

“We pay their wages, but get nothing out of it - which is fine. Liam has had a fantastic season for us, which we knew he would. He’s been missed of late, because he’s a fantastic player. But, all we can do is potentially put our best offer on the table. He knows that we’d love to keep him and I think Basel know we’d like to keep him. It’s easy for us to say we want to keep him, but I think Liam’s type of contract suits into the way we work.

“So, he is affordable, 100 per cent - but it’s whether he’s affordable to buy. It is whether Peter can thrash a deal out with Basel, and his agent, over it. I am sure there will be other clubs interested in him, but we have a value and if the value is way above then ultimately, you can’t do anything about it. But, Liam has loved his time here, wants to stay here - has said he’d love to stay - but it’s whether we can thrash a deal out with his parent club.”

It was suggested in the media, earlier this season, that Championship rivals Sunderland could make a move for Millar - should they lose their star man, Jack Clarke. Millar is settled back in England and has only spoken highly of his time at Preston. With one-year left to run on his contract, Lowe is keen to see what fee Basel ask for.

“He has (got one year left), yeah,” said Lowe. “That’s the thing, isn’t it? Instead of speaking out of turn, Peter might be the best man to ask. I leave that down to Peter. Obviously, we have a value of him - everyone has a value of a player. But, we also have to have a resale value as well. Because, if we go for whatever it may be and eventually we can’t make money on him - were we to invest in him - we’ve got to be careful, whatever it looks like.

“As I’ve said before, we can’t just go and splash cash that we can’t afford. We have to stick within the strict regime of the budget, which we do. I am sure - Peter and the family have already said - if it’s something we can do, we’ll have a look at doing it. But, it is out of our hands really. It depends what they value him at.”