Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe discusses potential player sales, spending of previous managers and permanent deals

The North End boss spoke at the end of the season of PNE needing to generate funds but he insisted that those funds would not stem from player sales, instead them needing to be ‘creative’.

PNE’s players do have a price though, should a suitable bid come in, and Lowe would only accept a departure if he felt he was able to reinvest the money into another player. Last summer a multi-million pound bid came in for Emil Riis but was turned down as it was late in the window and the Lilywhites didn’t feel they could use the money well enough and quick enough to deal with the loss of the Dane.

Lowe discussed how much he has had to spend so far at Deepdale, nothing, with other managers spending.

He said: “Everyone has a price tag, of course, but that price would have to be stupid numbers and I don't think anyone is going to pay for stupid numbers. When it comes to reinvesting, it's about having the personnel and the recruitment side to reinvest. If the player isn't there to reinvest, I don't want to just spend money willy-nilly.

"Over the course of the previous managers, Alex Neil - £9.5m spent or something along those lines. Simon Grayson - £6.5m. Frankie McAvoy - £1.5m. Me - zero. I wouldn't just spend for the sake of spending, I want to make sure we have irons in the fire who would cost a certain amount of money.

"Are some out of our range? Yeah, like most people are. We have to stick to the financial fair play regulations which the club have always done and I respect that. But we have to be smart in what we do and that will be pushing everyone's boundaries to make sure we get a little bit more to help us get to where we want to get to.”

One thing that could change the way North End are able to recruit is changes to Brexit and what that means for footballers looking to come and play in England.

At the moment it is on a points based system which is rather stringent, particularly for clubs in PNE’s position who aren’t able to spend much on transfer fees or wages, with those two factors playing a part in the points as well as a host of other factors.

It could be that the requirements are relaxed somewhat, opening up a new avenue of recruitment for the Lilywhites.

“We've got to act quick, we've got to know what we're doing, we've got to keep pushing. Do we want a few permanents as well as loans? Yeah, definitely.

"We have to recruit smartly and the lads are on with it in terms of the foreign leagues looking at players.

"There are loads of good players but if Brexit changes what it is, the numbers, eventually they can get the numbers and the 15 points. I don't know much about it but hopefully it changes in the next few weeks and it could give us a better chance.”