Ryan Lowe to head to European clubs as Preston North End transfer targets identified

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe will go to watch a couple of players in Europe after Saturday’s final match of the season.

The Lilywhites will bring the curtain down on their 2023/24 campaign, away to play-off and promotion chasing West Brom. And while that is a game North End will be looking to win, focus is already turning towards the summer. There’s more important work for PNE to do in the transfer window and Lowe will get his eyes on a couple of targets this month.

“We plan all the time, we have to,” said Lowe. “We’ve got targets and I’ll be going to a couple of games in Europe, over the next couple of weeks - to monitor one or two players who’ve been on our radar. The recruitment team have been doing and we had our first meeting last week. There are some good targets on there, but nothing gets done now - we are going to need to have communication and conversations.

“Peter (Ridsdale) will speak to the agents. We just try to identify some players other people might not be aware of - especially in Europe, which we’ve done before with Mads (Frokjaer) and Milutin (Osmajic). I think we’ve been smart in our recruitment, but if we can be that bit smarter and get one or two quality, game changers, then it’ll do us well. There are some good quality players over there who need opportunities.”

The mantra of looking for players other clubs may ‘not be aware of’ is certainly one Lowe is behind, in a bid to bring as much quality through the door as possible. But, with all recruitment departments up and down the country having data on players, the North End boss says it’s not getting any easier to unearth hidden gems.

“They have all got data, yeah,” said Lowe. “You can look too much into data and as I say, I need to go and watch a couple of players - which I’ll do. I will get my eyes on them; you know when you see a good player. There’s obviously a couple of things you have to polish up on, but we feel we can coach them in the right way - like we’ve done with all the players.

“That will be important for us, but it’s hard at the moment because there are teams out there who can just come in and outpower you with money. We want them to buy into the project, like Mads and Milly did - there were other clubs in for them. You can tell them what the club is about and what we’re trying to achieve.”