Stuart McCall took on press conference duty on Friday afternoon

Preston North End assistant Stuart McCall says Millwall and Wrexham pipped the Lilywhites to summer signings.

One of those, as revealed by McCall in Friday’s pre-match press conference, was Lions front man Josh Coburn. The 23-year-old has scored nine goals in 25 appearances for Alex Neil’s side - who go into their penultimate game of the season sitting third.

Millwall paid a club-record £5million to land the forward, who had been on loan the previous year. McCall reflected, at length, on the Lilywhites’ campaign and came on to the view that PNE need extra investment to truly push on.

There is strong takeover talk surrounding the club at the moment, with Amr Zedan having attended the recent home draw against Queens Park Rangers. McCall was asked about that looming in the background.

And he told BBC Lancashire: “Well, listen, I'm going to be honest... the club needs investment if they want to go to the next level. There's no doubt in that and that's not a criticism of the Hemmings family, who have put the money in year in, year out. But, what is the same money as say, five years ago.

“And obviously, clubs spend more now. It might’ve been a mid-table budget years ago; it's now, I think, a bottom four budget. That's not making excuses, that's just plain facts. So yeah, I think for every Preston fan, or anyone who works at the club, investment - and it might be a case where we get investment, the owners come in and me and Paul, they've got their own people to come in.

“But I certainly think that'll be better for Preston North End, as long as they're the right people. You've seen a lot of clubs get the wrong owners in... but no, I think any club supporter would like somebody to come in with money, that's going to invest it in the club. But also invest it in a sensible way, and until they're in and you vet them, you don't know if that's going to be the case.

“But for the club to get out... I mean, in the close season, we spoke to two lads who went to Wrexham. We thought we'd have a good chance of getting them; absolutely no chance in the end when you start talking wages. Josh Coburn, we had really strong hopes of getting him. He went to Millwall, we couldn't compete.

“So, there's got to be realism about it. The best players for us at the minute, or in the last few years, have been loan players and we only pay a portion of their wages. A lot of them are on £25,000 etc... far more money than we pay wages. So, if you can get them for a quarter of that, or a third of that, then that's what you've got to do, unfortunately, at this moment.

“But to go back to your question, yeah, I think it would be a very positive move if there could be fresh investment. Whether that's a takeover, or somebody coming along and putting some money in the club. It's frustrating at times because we spot the players, we speak to the agents, we do some calls with the players.

“They're keen on Preston, and then it comes down to the wages. It's just the fact we can't match what most teams give. So, then it's not about crying about it and being negative about it.. it's about doing the best with what you've got.”