Paul Heckingbottom fires early summer transfer message as 'another challenge' anticipated

Preston North End boss Paul Heckingbottom expects a big push when the summer transfer window comes around.

It has been an up and down campaign for the Lilywhites, who sit 13th in the Championship with four matches left to contest. PNE were in the play-off mix for the first half of the campaign but then plummeted down the table.

They have taken eight points from the last four games, though, and pulled away from the wrong end. Now, it’s simply a case of Preston trying to finish as high as they possibly can, with West Brom, Birmingham, Sheffield United and Southampton to play.

North End were in relegation trouble on the final day of last season and finished 20th. But, they were in a wonderful position after the turn of the year. With all of that in mind, how would Heckingbottom view a top half finish? Would it be viewed as encouraging progress, or does he see it as either making the play-offs or not?

“Yeah, that’s what it is... it’s that black and white to me,” said Heckingbottom. “After that, I'm not bothered other than I want us to be better, and we need to be better next year. We need to push in the window. I think I said, the three who came up have totally changed the dynamic of this league.

“A few years ago, Preston were mid to bottom end budget, competing, doing well. Now, we are right down there and we have to find other ways. So, we're going to have another challenge this summer to improve and that's why we need to keep pushing.

“We’ve tried to freshen it up again in January, where we let certain players go to raise funds and bring in Callum (Lang), bring in Andy (Moran). Now we work with them and we’re going to have to make gambles, we're going to have to try and push to improve but generate our own way of doing it.”