Preston North End recruitment meeting goes ahead as Ryan Lowe and staff plan for summer

Preston North End’s pre-summer meeting with manager Ryan Lowe, club and recruitment staff went ahead this week.

After the Lilywhites lost 1-0 at Queens Park Rangers last weekend, Lowe said he was in two minds whether to push it back. The result at Loftus Road left North End’s boss extremely frustrated and looking ahead to next season - with Leicester City and West Brom still to come - was not at the forefront of his mind. But, Lowe and co got their heads together to identify and discuss players, to possibly target in the upcoming transfer window.

“I have got a duty of care to the players, but they’ve also got a duty of care to us - because they are contracted to us,” said Lowe, in his pre-match press conference. “As I say, our main aim on that is we’ve got two games to go. If I speak to someone and they’re disappointed, then they’re playing, you can’t really do that. But, the staff and recruitment meeting was good. We had it yesterday about some potential targets for next season.”

With regards to those players out of contract in the summer, though, Lowe has not yet told anyone if they are being let go. Captain Alan Browne has been offered fresh terms, but Greg Cunningham, Ben Woodburn, Ched Evans and Patrick Bauer are all in their final few months. Lowe will hold those conversations back until after the final day of the season.

“We wanted more points on the board before doing that,” said Lowe. “No disrespect to Queens Park Rangers - we wanted to go there and win. It might’ve made it a bit easier, because of the points tally. But, we’ve got two games to go and the meetings can be whenever they want to be, really. I’ll probably do the meetings with the players, on the Sunday after the West Brom game if the truth be known.

“We’ve got two important games and we want to finish the season on a high. We want to equip ourselves right, which we always do - and we want to give a good account of ourselves. Nobody has been banging my door down, to ask any questions, which is very professional of the group. I think that is good; we’ll give them a timetable after Monday about what he weeks looks like. And we’ll then discuss situations, then.”