Ryan Lowe says Preston North End have to generate funds for summer transfer window

It looks like an important summer ahead for the Lilywhites, with potentially 10 players departing Deepdale and them having finished just short in their chase for a play-off place this season.

A defeat to Sheffield United last time out means Preston’s pursuit of the play-offs ended one game before the end of the campaign, with many cursing a couple of games and points that could have made all the difference.

Lowe has made no secret of his desires to have the club in the top six and pushing for a place in the Premier League, meaning recruitment this summer will be essential. But in order to improve on their current crop, the club may have to spend, and Lowe knows that they must create some of the cash themselves.

“We might have to change, look, we have to generate,” he said. “We have to generate funds, we'll have something to spend, hopefully, what that looks like we don't know yet because we're still not to the end. But we have to try and generate as much as we possibly can to try and give ourselves a fighting chance of sustaining it in the play-off positions and staying there.

"That's certainly what we're doing. We've been looking at stuff, the Brexit stuff in terms of players might change over the next couple of weeks which will give us a real indication of what we could look for, which will help us.

"You can to recruit smartly. More importantly we're all on the same page trying to achieve something.”

One way of generating more funds to enable themselves in the transfer market would be for PNE to sell some of their prized assets.

That will not happen under Lowe, however, and he’s encouraged the club to be creative in the way they can create funds otherwise.

He said: “No player is for sale. None at all. Generating funds will be in a different way, that's what Peter Ridsdale (director) and the gang will look to try and do. But we will try and generate, try and get as much as we can.

"Down to small things like sponsorship and things like that, everything that can help us get what we want and those are the conversations we've already started having.

"No player is going to get sold to generate funds. No chance.”