Paul Heckingbottom makes Preston North End transfer stance clear as Peter Ridsdale weighs in
PNE have appointed Paul Heckingbottom as the club’s new manager
New Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom will be looking to strengthen before the transfer window shuts.
The Lilywhites confirmed the appointment of the 47-year-old on Tuesday morning, with him joined by assistant Stuart McCall at Deepdale. It’s straight down to work, with the first match this Saturday at home to Luton Town. But, with there still 11 days left to wheel and deal in the transfer market, the ex-Sheffield United boss believes North End must try to add if possible.
“Yeah, definitely,” said Heckingbottom. “It’s something I want to try and capitalise on if we can. There are always factors which dictate whether you can or not, but certainly we are going to work as hard as we possibly can, to do that. It would be a missed opportunity if we didn’t do that. Until that window closes, we will be looking to do things.
“We’ll probably keep things pretty private. We are not going to be foolish enough to share everything, because you have to work so hard to get players over the line. The competition when going for a player will be so fierce, so we have to be clever with it and keep things close to our chest. We are under no illusions how hard it is to get players in.”
North End director Peter Ridsdale expected to make four or five signings, heading into the summer. PNE have brought in Sam Greenwood and Kaine Kesler-Hayden on loan, with Stefan Thordarson and Jeppe Okkels signed permanently. With a new manager at the helm now, Ridsdale says North End will do their best to support him during the remainder of the window.
“Every manager wants to improve the squad, which means they want to go and see what’s out there on the market,” said Ridsdale. “We discussed that on Sunday night and to the degree we can, within our budget, we will do so. Every window we have tried to improve the squad and we will continue to do that - it is still open until a week on Friday. It would help if we could beat Harrogate and draw Manchester United or Arsenal away in the next round, to generate even more money. That would be very helpful.”