Paul Heckingbottom on goalkeeper exit, Potts and Small injury updates and Preston North End transfers
The shot-stopper departs after four years at the club.
Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom has confirmed that goalkeeper Dai Cornell has left the club.
PNE said in May that Cornell was in discussions with the club over his future as his contract ran down. They were understood to still be in talks in June but the North End chief says the 35-year-old Welshman has now left the Lilywhites.
Heckingbottom kept his answer short on Cornell, but also issued an update on Brad Potts and Thierry Small. Potts hasn’t featured for PNE yet in pre-season, while Small suffered an injury in the friendly at Bamber Bridge last month.
“Yeah, Dai’s left,” Heckingbottom told the Lancashire Post, “Potts just picked up an injury, so again, he's on his recovery, Thierry got a kick on his ankle against Bamber Bridge in the first game, so he's on his way back from that on the mend.
“We'll see how they are this week, hopefully, fingers crossed, Thierry might be back for the game at the weekend, but like I said, we're not going to take risks with him, but he'll have to train a few days before that, but hopefully he's not too far.”
The PNE boss wouldn’t go into too much detail about incomings but told BBC Radio Lancashire that he is optimistic following conversations with the board. However, he did admit the squad are ‘miles away’ from where it needs to be.
“We replaced Jack and Dai with Lee. We kept Alfie from last year, we obviously replaced Mads and Stefi [Thordarson] with Cal [Lang] and Andy [Moran] in January.
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“In January, we never got a replacement back in place for Harrison, we've not got a replacement yet for Jebbo, we've not got a replacement yet for Keano, Robbie Brady, Jamal Lewis, so that's how light we are and the season starts next week.
“We're working really, really hard, we've got to keep working hard, but time catches up with you, do you know what I mean? We know what we need to do, we're well short, so it's got to be the priority now and that's the big reason why, unfortunately.”
“I spoke to Craig and Peter yesterday, really confident that we can get the players in, we've worked hard to identify them, they're still there, we want to get them in, it's simple.
“So yeah, until we get a no, or I get a no, the recruitment team get a no, then we have to keep pushing, be really aggressive, and then if we do get a no on one of the targets, we move on and we get the next one. But time is of the essence now.”
When asked by BBC Radio Lancashire about loans, Heckingbottom added: “Constantly going to be looking, yeah. We got Alfie in this time last year, just before the first game of the season, then Dobbo a week later.
“Harrison Armstrong, last day of the window, so we've got to have that flexibility and that mentality that we'll try and improve right until the very end, we're all aware of that.
“We'd be foolish not to look at it, but there's no guarantees we can get the players or they choose us, but we'd be foolish not to try our best to capitalise on that.
“So we've recruited Alfie, it'd be ideal if we could get one or two more of our own players, and then we've got five loan spaces, whether we use them all or not, we have to wait and see, but then two or three loans would be the way to go to get the quality that we want.”
When asked if he was happy with his players’ fitness levels ahead of the Huddersfield Town game at Goodison Park next Saturday, he told the Lancashire Post: “Yeah, the players we've got now have all had the 90s, which is good, they've all trained hard.
“I think the last couple of days, it's coming off them now, they’ve got used to that, and they're in as good a place as we can be, after four weeks training, but I don't think the players will feel really sharp until they've played four or five games in the season.
“You always see them within your group, some players get up to that level a lot quicker than others because some aren't getting the full 90s, so if we can progress past Huddersfield, which is the aim obviously, it gives us another game to get game time into the players and hopefully, we've added more quality into the group then, and it'll be good games as well to bed them in.”