'A few millions' - Peter Ridsdale outlines boost Preston North End will receive this summer

Preston North End director Peter Ridsdale has explained why there is little scope for incoming business this month - but the summer will offer greater opportunities.

The Lilywhites signed eight players in the first transfer window this season. One of those, Calvin Ramsay, has returned to Liverpool already from his loan spell. But, Preston were pretty busy in the summer market - spending more than £3million to recruit Milutin Osmajic and Mads Frokjaer.

PNE's club accounts for 2022/23 were published last week, showing a £12.2m loss overall - a figure down from £16.9m the previous year. North End's budget, as a result, is miniscule and any signings will need to be balanced out with outgoings.

"There is absolutely no headroom this January, unless we reduce the overheads in January," said Ridsdale, in an interview with BBC Radio Lancashire. "Summer is when the best business gets done, so I would expect little activity this January and, like last summer, far more activity this summer. There are two things on loans - the first is the position you are trying to cover off. I think we have the best balanced squad, at the moment, that we've had for some time.

"The next is the cost. If you go to the Premier League today, it is getting harder and more expensive to borrow. You used to be able to go to a club secretary or a manager and the most important part, for them, was game time - not how much money you are paying. Now, if you go to a Premier League club, in the main they want full contribution for wages - which is sometimes way above what we would pay our players.

"Sometimes, you can get a deal on that. And then they want loan fees, so by the time you've finished borrowing those players it could cost you three times what you would be playing for one of your own - and then they go back. So, we get no benefit from that. Loans are great if you have to and can assist, but in reality we prefer to have our own."

As for the budget, North End have to stay within the Financial Fair Play limit. Under Profit and Sustainability rules, Championship clubs are allowed to lose a maximum of £39m over three years. With the 2020/21 season - contested entirely during Covid - still active in the cycle, it is a case of Preston getting through until that is history.

"Our challenge is to stay under that," said Ridsdale. "This year particularly, it is really tough. We will manage it, just. And it is that tight. The reason for that is that it's a three year, rolling average and the first year of the three is Covid year. We lost a substantial amount of money during Covid year, which drops off next year. So, years one, two and three are a challenge to us because of year one. We will just stay within it, hopefully, fingers crossed.

"That is everything we are working to do this year. But, once we manage to do that by the summer, that bad year drops off. The other two aren't fantastic, but they do give us headroom moving forward. We are right up against it this year and with a fair wind, we will be okay and just duck under the rolling, three -year average. As I say, year one will drop off and it will give us some headroom. It is not millions and millions, but it is a few millions - which will give us an opportunity to decide how we invest that, going forward, from next season."