Preston North End takeover clarity craved by Paul Heckingbottom as season ends and summer approaches
Amr Zedan has been the businessman at the centre of PNE takeover talk
Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom says he is in the ‘same position as fans’ regarding a potential takeover.
Reports of Amr Zedan’s interest in the Deepdale club first surfaced towards the end of January. Since then, noise around the US-born Saudi businessman has not quitened. He attended the home game against Queens Park Rangers and has kept sharing PNE related posts to his Instagram story.
”I know little bits, but that's it,” said Heckingbottom, on Thursday afternoon. “I'm not involved in the process. It's not my position. I’m in the same position as all the fans, waiting for something official, if it comes - positive or negative, in terms of it happening or not. So yeah, I just hear the speculation like you guys.”
Heckingbottom has spoken about added investment being crucial - assistant Stuart McCall reinforced that when he spoke to the press last Friday. Some news on the takeover front, either way, would certainly be welcomed by the PNE boss given that summer is around the corner. Given the funds the Lilywhites had to work with this time last year, he still reflects fondly on the business Preston concluded. It’s now all about building on it.
“Yeah, I do,” said Heckingbottom. “We did really well on it. I think everyone would’ve said that. Of course, we ended up being right up there, then you drop off. No, we did well, we did well. We identified some good players, spent very little... we did a lot of things really early. I think it allowed us to get on the front foot and steal a march on some clubs.
“Or, because we acted so well and aggressively, the players who were top of our list, we got them over the line and they might not have been top of others. We need to be that good again but getting clarity on where we are, whether it's takeover, our budget, that type of thing, is a big thing for us to get rolling.”