Ex-Preston North End man reveals he was wanted by 'one of biggest clubs' in England

Ex-Preston North End goalkeeper Andy Lonergan has revealed 'one of the biggest clubs in the country' wanted to sign him at one point.

Lonergan made more than 230 appearances for his boyhood club between 2000 and 2011 - when he left for Leeds United. He would go on to sign for several clubs, including Bolton, Fulham and more recently Liverpool and Everton. Lonergan was North End's number one for several seasons and he famously scored against Leicester City - in 2004 - from his own half.

The shot-stopper was never able to reach the top flight with his hometown club, having suffered play-off heartbreak in the 2008/09 campaign. Reflecting on his career with PNE's new podcast - hosted by old team mate Neil Mellor - Lonergan admitted he perhaps could've pushed harder for a move to a Premier League side, given the interest around him back then.

"Looking back - and a few people were telling me at the time - I was quite an asset for Preston because I know they were turning bids down for me in that January," Lonergan told the newly launched PNE Pod. "Which was a lot of money. I was potentially going to move in the summer - I don't know what the bids were. It was mad, I didn't really have an agent. There were agents sniffing around. I remember reading the paper and it was like 'Where has this come from?'.

"Then you speak to someone and they are like 'Yeah, they're interested'. I remember having Billy Davies call me once to say they'd had this team on, but they were not going to sell me now and sell me at the end of the season. I am not telling you who! But, it was like one of the biggest clubs in the country. I was a bit like 'Flipping heck, that's good'. Looking back, should I have maybe pushed it? Yeah, probably, because that opportunity never came again."

On whether he felt good enough to play in the Premier League, Lonergan added: "Yeah, I felt at the time I was. And once I had gotten to 200 and odd appearances for Preston, I remember having it with Darren Ferguson. They rejected a few bids from West Brom. Preston said 'If we get to this number, you can go'. We were in the play-offs that season; next season we were fighting relegation. I said to Darren Ferguson 'This is only going to end one way - you are not getting the backing and we are letting loads of good lads go'.

"I was like 'What can we do here? We are going to be fighting. I can play in the Prem, here'. The chairman said that if they got to a number, they will do it. They got to the number and said 'No, we want another million.' That happened on a few occasions, so the opportunity was there - I just couldn't get out. When you've never had a transfer, you don't know how to deal with it do you? I always wanted to kick on. I probably should've (kicked off), because it didn't end well. I said it'd happen and I ended up basically going for free."