Preston North End announce departure of two coaches from Graham Alexander's staff
Graham Alexander has made changes to his coaching staff
First-team coaches Peter Murphy and Andy Liddell have left their roles at Preston North End, the club announced on Monday evening.
Graham Alexander was appointed as Preston manager on September 28 and, other than bringing long-term assistant Chris Lucketti with him from Bradford City, he opted to keep the coaching staff he inherited from Paul Heckingbottom in place.
However, following three defeats in his opening three games in charge, the first changes to his backroom team have been made, with Murphy and Liddell leaving Deepdale.
Murphy joined Preston in 2023 as a first-team coach, while Liddell was appointed as first-team fitness coach in 2025.
The club said in a statement: “Preston North End can confirm that the club have parted ways with first-team coaches Peter Murphy and Andy Liddell.
“We thank Peter and Andy for their service to the football club and wish them all the very best for the future.”
There has been no word as of yet on who will be replacing them in Alexander’s coaching staff.
First-team coach Jason Euell, who took interim charge of the team for the draw at QPR before Alexander’s arrival, and goalkeeper coach Mike Pollitt remain with the club.
What Graham Alexander has said about his PNE coaching staff
When asked by The Post if he intends to bring in his own coaching staff during his first press conference as manager, Alexander said everyone at the club had a chance to show they wanted to remain with his project.
“When we've gone into different clubs, we've always inherited staff, and we're still really close friends with some from the past," he 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."
He continued: "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."
The Post then asked Alexander the following week if any moves had been made to add to his staff and he said: “No, I haven't done that.
“It's the same scenario with the staff [as the players, a clean slate]. We talked to them about the style of play, in and out of possession.
“I don't want to use the word educating because they're qualified coaches but they need to understand what's going through this [points to head] on my side of it. How myself and Chris have worked before.
“But trying to cram it all in in the first week or couple of days is impossible, it's going to be information overload. It's just going to go through. Just noise.
“I've been really pleased with how they've bought in to what we're trying to.”