Milutin Osmajic exit not guaranteed says Preston North End boss as contract ticks down

Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom has outlined his view on Milutin Osmajic’s contract situation.

The Montenegrin has 12 months left to run on his contract this summer, having scored 31 goals in 109 appearances. Osmajic signed for a reported £2.1million in the summer of 2023, from Cadiz. His time at Deepdale hasn’t been short of controversy - he has missed 20 matches through suspension, for three separate incidents.

Heckingbottom recently emphasised the need for PNE to get control of contract situations, especially in the final year. Osmajic, 26, has been linked with Celtic before as well as clubs in Spain, Italy, France and Turkey. In the North End manager’s mind, a sale or extended contract are the two options - though the former has to be right for Preston.

“Yeah, because why would we let him go on a free transfer?” Heckingbottom said after the final day of the season. “But then there comes a point where, if the value we get for him is not enough, I'll be saying he's not going anywhere because we've got to replace him. It has to be the right money, 100 per cent.

“So, he either signs for the right money (or) gets sold for the right money. If not, we need the football value in the squad if we can't replace him. If the money's right either way, that's the outcome.

“We just have to make a football decision if we can't replace him, and make sure that value is he's playing for us next season. Forget what people have bought him for; there's a value on players right now, an internal value. What's the value to us?

“And then what does someone else value him at? The moment that external value becomes greater than what his value is to us, they move. If no one meets that value to us because we can't replace him, or in the strikers’ case we think they're going to bring us goals and we can't get that, then they don't move.”