Peter Ridsdale gives honest view on Milutin Osmajic's future at Preston North End after latest ban
The striker returns from a three-match ban this weekend
Preston North End CEO Peter Ridsdale has labelled it an ‘important’ few months for Milutin Osmajic.
The Lilywhites will welcome the Montenegro international back from a three-game ban for this Saturday’s home game against Watford. Osmajic was shown a straight red card for headbutting John Lundstram, right at the end of PNE’s 0-3 loss to Hull City.
For Osmajic, it was the latest flashpoint in his North End career. He was given an eight-match ban last season for biting Blackburn Rovers’ Owen Beck. Racism allegations made by Burnley’s Hannibal Mejbri then resulted in a nine-game suspension.
Up until last week, manager Paul Heckingbottom had been extremely coy when asked about Osmajic - who is under contract until 2027. The PNE boss then put it on Osmajic to ‘step up’ to the standards of everyone else at the club.
When asked by the Lancashire Post if he has to follow the manager’s lead on that front, Ridsdale said: “Well, there are two parts to it. The first of which is the playing part and the other part is the impact of what's happened on the club.
“The fact of the matter is we've got a player there who's missed 20 games through suspension in two seasons. Now, that's a very expensive player that does that, because we pay him to play, not to be missing.
“And therefore, I think this is a very important five-month period for Milutin. He either demonstrates to us and our supporters that he can play more often than not and he can score goals, or we'd have to take a view in the summer as to whether or not that's a player that's going to be value for money staying with us.
“But that is up to him, not up to me. I can't do anything about it. What we cannot have is players missing 20 games through suspension over two seasons... it's just not acceptable. I don't pick the team; he's in our squad and he's contracted to us.
“But I've made it clear that from a club point of view, as opposed to from a football management point of view, we cannot afford to have a squad where one player is paid a lot of money, to be sitting there suspended every week... 20 games out of whatever it is, 92 over two years or something, it's just not acceptable.”