Preston North End's budgets explained by club director Peter Ridsdale

North End’s business so far this summer has been reserved, only extending a couple of contracts to date. They are still in talks with three players who were at the club last season – one having agreed terms – those being Greg Cunningham, Josh Onomah and Daniel Johnson.

Robbie Brady and Ben Woodburn have had their deals extended. Brady’s now runs until 2025 and Woodburn’s until 2024.

North End have had bids rejected this summer as they look to strengthen Ryan Lowe’s squad and Ridsdale has explained how that works in relations to the club’s transfer budget.

He said: “The way it works is very simple. We get allocated a cash budget so we manage this business for cash. How we use that cash is, to some degree, up to us.

"If we decide to spend part of the cash on transfer fees it just means that we've spent part of the cash that's left for wages. We balance all the time the wage bill versus how much we spend on transfer fees. Clearly we believe there is cash available, that would leave us with slightly less when it comes to the wage bill but the cash is the cash.”

The North End faithful have snapped up 11,000 season cards already this summer, taking advantage of the club’s early bird discount.

Knowing roughly how many supporters will be coming through the turnstiles in the season is an important part of Preston planning out their budgets and spends for the season, with potential bonus funds coming in from progress in cup competitions, like last season’s FA Cup third round clash with Tottenham Hotspur.

"That's why it's so important for us to try and have an understanding for how much we've got from gate receipts and sponsorship and other things, so that at the start of the season we can plan,” Ridsdale said.

"We can commit to cash we know we're going to get in. Although we budget prudently, we plan to get knocked out of the cup competitions in the first round that we enter so in the extent that we do better than that, we have more money to spend.

"That was demonstrated last January because when we drew Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup, we spent all the money that we hadn't budgeted on bringing in Josh Onomah, Liam Delap and Tom Cannon.”