Preston North End have 10 vital days to avoid Ryan Lowe’s nightmare transfer scenario

Preston North End had lift off early in this summer’s transfer window, but key business is still to be done as the market enters crunch stage. Calvin Ramsay, Will Keane, Duane Holmes, Mads Frokjaer, Layton Stewart and Jack Whatmough have come through the door at Deepdale. Manager Ryan Lowe, though, knows he needs more by the time the clock strikes 11pm on Friday, 1 September.

On the pitch, the Lilywhites’ start to the season has been pretty positive. PNE went draws galore this time last year, but Lowe’s men have been quick out of the blocks and collected seven points from a possible nine. While we wait to see what Stewart and Ramsay will bring, Keane and Frokjaer are up and running, while glimpses of Holmes and Whatmough have been encouraging.

And yet North End are perhaps as thin as they’ve ever been, for senior players at this level. Five youngsters made Saturday’s bench at Hillsborough; 16-year-old Felipe Rodriguez-Gentile is the only striker in reserve at present. Fortunately, Kian Best has exceeded all expectations of him since breaking on to the scene and finding himself in PNE’s opening day starting lineup.

It’s still early days and if there’s ever a time to ask the same players to go again and again, you’d rather it be now - fresh from pre-season and desperate for as many minutes as possible. But, as everyone knows by now, you cannot compete in this league without depth. It’s a very good job Keane is playing as well as he is and injury to him right now would be catastrophic.

So, while injury returns will clearly be a huge boost to Lowe - who was without Robbie Brady, Ben Whiteman, Emil Riis, Ched Evans, Ali McCann, Ramsay and Stewart last time out - it’s those final deals which North End are crying out for. A striker is a must and Preston should still be looking to strengthen down the left, regardless of Best’s bright performances.

It was a position Lowe headed into the season looking to bolster, evidenced by the unsuccessful pursuits of Yasser Larouci and Josh Wilson-Esbrand. Preston got 34 appearances out of Brady last season, but his injury woes are a concern and placing too much pressure on Best too soon would be unfair. Added quality and athleticism, which last season’s loan star Alvaro Fernandez provided, could make all the difference to Lowe’s team.

And the centre-forward chase is as challenging as ever. North End brought three in on loan last season but it’s proving tough to get one in this time. Lowe is a big believer of waiting for the right ones, but Preston’s boss is also strongly against scratching around on transfer deadline day. Those are two things to balance, as is the proven goal scoring ability of PNE’s number one target Tom Cannon.

If there was ever a player to wait and wait for, it is someone of his calibre. But how long for? By all accounts, the player wants to come back to Deepdale on loan, but Everton are yet to give him the green light to leave.

Toffees boss Sean Dyche was coy when asked about the player last week, but his uninvolvement in Everton’s 4-0 defeat at Aston Villa suggests the striker is well down the pecking order. The availability of summer signing Youssef Chermiti will bump Cannon down a further place, as would the signing of Che Adams from Southampton. Right now, nobody is really winning. Yet, you’d hardly imagine PNE’s threadbare front line was the talk of Everton’s offices on Monday, after their Villa Park humbling.

North End are very much approaching dangerous territory now though, to the point where they risk getting nobody. That would quite frankly be disastrous. Lowe is very relaxed every time he is asked about Cannon, but as each day passes the temptation to move on must increase. It’d be a late, sorry change of heart, but North End are understood to be actively exploring alternatives. As Cannon, showed in January though, not getting what you want doesn’t always end up being a bad thing.