Ryan Lowe makes Preston North End transfer assurance as wing-back search is off

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe says the club will ‘definitely’ get further business done in the transfer window - but that the search for a left wing-back is off.

The Lilywhites want a striker through the door before close of play on September 1st, with it no secret that Everton forward Tom Cannon is the primary target. With the window almost at its final week, though, North End are now exploring alternative options to ensure they aren’t left short.

Lowe has explained, in previous interviews, his understanding that PNE have agreements in place but are waiting on other clubs to let their players leave on loan. Overall, he remains relaxed on the transfer front, though his view over recruiting a left wing-back - having targeted two earlier this summer - has now changed.

“I won’t be looking to strengthen down that side,” said Lowe. “When you’ve got a young kid who - in everyone’s eyes - has been fantastic, it’s an opportunity. There is no point in me going to sign another left sided player for the sake of it, because Besty is playing there and doing well. When Robbie’s back, he has then got a tough gig to get the shirt off Besty. So, then the two of them keep competing when they are available.

“It is not a position I am looking for now, because Besty has done so well and fair play to him. We have given him the chance, but he has had to take it. I think it’s a good thing. He is not going to play 46 games, of course - he will have a moment where he sort of blows up, because he’s only a baby. But, hopefully that is not anytime soon and is when Robbie’s back, so the two of them can share the load.”

Lowe added: “I will be glad when we’ve got our settled team, so we know what we’ve got - whether that’s one or two or three (in). Nobody has been banging our door down for any of our players really, so I’m quite content with that. For us, it’s just a case of us being settled once we’ve got them in. And then we can look forward. At the minute, it is what it is, we’ve just got to wait patiently to see what we can get.”

And on the incoming front, Lowe says the focus is now firmly on signing a striker and potentially other attacking players. He explained how the club have a couple of different plans in place for the final few days of the window - as well as his full confidence that North End will bring more fresh faces in.

“Yeah,” said Lowe, when asked if he is confident he will get the attacking additions he needs. “I don’t see any panic. We are probably in a better position than most clubs, because we’ve got Ched hopefully on the way back in the next six weeks and Emil who will probably be September time. We have got Will Keane and lads who can filter round, so I’m not sitting here saying we’ve got no strikers in the building.

“We’ve got young Layton getting built up to be stronger, so I’m not going to panic like mad and I don’t want Preston fans to panic because we feel we’ve got everything in place for what we want. Everyone wants a 15 goal striker, but we’ve got one, potentially two of them waiting in the wings to come back.

“That gives me massive confidence and I think it should fill the fans with massive confidence as well. But, we are looking for another one of course. And if we can’t get one, we’ll definitely get one we can turn into a goal scorer - with one or two around it to make us a bit thicker in squad depth. We are quite relaxed and we will definitely get some business done - definitely, yeah.”

He added: “We’ve got a plan in place and it might go down to the wire, which I don’t really like. But, again, we are governed by other clubs and other people making decisions. We’ve got a Plan A, a Plan B and a pot of cash we can use - whether it’s for one or a couple. Sometimes it is out of our hands; well most of it is out of our hands really. We put our offers out there and everything on the table.

“It’s over to other people to say: ‘Yeah, that’s fine, we can move with that’. I don’t want to give too much away, but it could be a case of one player or three players. Whatever we have to go with - if we go with a senior, who we know all about and who can score goals. Or if we go for another player, who we can turn into a goal scorer - like we did with Cannon and Archer - I am not afraid of that, then maybe adding a couple more around that, to give you a bit more.”