Alex Neil is coming to the end of his fourth season as Preston North End manager. Since taking over from Simon Grayson in 2017, it’s fair to say his time at Deepdale has been a bit of a rollercoaster.
Plenty of ups and downs along the way, and now the club finds itself undergoing a major rebuild with plenty of ins and outs.
January was quite a chaotic month on the transfer front, and you can expect the summer window to take a similar shape. With one of the most important rebuilding jobs at the club coming up in the summer, can Alex Neil be trusted with it?
The early days of Neil’s tenure showed great promise. An attacking side, on the front foot, counter attacking and closing down the opposition at all opportunities.
The squad of 2017-18 was the best we have seen for a while with Jordan Hugill in his prime, Greg Cunningham too, and Callum Robinson, Alan Browne and Sean Maguire having strong campaigns. Neil’s side missed out on the play-offs by just two points that season.
It was a strong foundation to build on with Darnell Fisher, his first Preston signing, having particularly impressed. The heights of that season haven’t really been reached again under Neil bar the early stages of the 19/20 season, which saw The Lilywhites atop of the Championship briefly.
14th and 9th place finishes have followed and this season has pretty much been written off as a season of transition.
We are continually reminded that Preston have one of the lowest budgets in the league, and you can’t expect too much with that. However, there have always been anomalies to that; teams who have gone on to achieve promotion.
In recent times Huddersfield Town, and unfortunately neighbours Burnley and Blackpool have shown it is possible. This season Barnsley are having a great campaign, and they are a side who often have to sell their best players.
There are certainly a few fans who are in the ‘Neil Out’ brigade, whilst many others suggest that they wouldn’t be too bothered if he were to leave. I think the majority still think there isn’t many other better options out there, and he’s done a good job with the tools available to him.
With the departures of Ben Pearson, Ben Davies and Darnell Fisher, there are huge gaps in the team for Neil to fill. Currently a lot of the gaps have been filled with loan signings, so the cracks have only been papered over.
Looking back at Neil’s signings; for every good one, you can bring up a poor one. For every Fisher, Ryan Ledson, Patrick Bauer, and Scott Sinclair, there’s been a Josh Ginnelly, Billy Bodin, Andre Green and Connor Ripley to even things out. There’s still a few who we are yet to see whether they are good signings or not, including recent signings, but also Tom Bayliss as he nears the end of his second season with us, but having only started one league game in that time.
Looking at the January signings Ben Whiteman looks to be a shrewd addition. There is plenty of competition in the centre of midfield now, and that could mean that Jayson Molumby’s temporary deal would be kept at just that come the end of the season. Ledson has become an important player, and Daniel Johnson and Alan Browne have now committed their future to the club.
Daniel Iversen is clearly a great ‘keeper, with a promising career ahead of him. A permanent transfer would cost a lot, but another loan deal could be on the cards. Based on Ched Evans’ and Greg Cunningham’s form of late, I would be surprised if they are both not offered at least a year’s deal to tie them through until 2022.
Sepp van den Berg’s loan deal has an option for another year, which again you think would be taken up. Liam Lindsay will be one who is available for a transfer, being out of favour at Stoke City, although with Bauer back for next season, Storey progressing and Paul Huntington being handed a new deal, Van den Berg could be kept on in Lindsay’s place as a centre-back.
Finally. Anthony Gordon is a huge talent, and another loan deal is the best that could be hoped for at this stage, and would be an incredible bit of business, if North End can convince Everton and the player himself to stay for a bit longer.
Overall, there’s a lot of questions ahead of Neil in the summer. His decisions on players are going to impact the club for the next few years. Preston North End’s success tends to go in cycles. They bring in young players at a low cost generally, build them up, and then when they are at their peak that’s when they need to achieve something. If not, they are sold on, and the process starts again. That’s where we are currently at. Get it wrong like Darren Ferguson did in 2010/11, and the club suffers tremendously. That season saw relegation following a play-off heartache under Alan Irvine just two years before. It could easily go that way again.
With so much change in a squad, the players need to gel quickly. There are signs of that in this team already, but how many are going to be here come August?
The club needs leaders as well. Paul Gallagher may be on his way out, which really only leaves Paul Huntington and Greg Cunningham as senior players who understand the club. It will of course be a huge time for Alan Browne to step forward and underline his captaincy and class.
Alex Neil will be given a bit of money to spend, but is it right to stick with him after a very dull season on the pitch? Is the club going in the right direction, or would it be better to bring in someone new at a time where the playing staff is churning and we go down a different path?