Preston wanted Andre Gray over the summer and will rue missing out as he racks up the goals for Aris Thessaloniki.
North End clearly needed two strikers over the summer; boss Ryan Lowe even said as much.
However, Lowe was only able to sign the one striker as Troy Parrott arrived on a season-long loan deal from Tottenham Hotspur.
Parrott has yet to find the net in a league game for North End and Preston as a whole are struggling for goals.
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Lowe’s men have scored just twice in eight Championship games and the problems show no sign of ending.
Lowe looked at other strikers over the summer and the main name linked was Andre Gray.
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Preston wanted Andre Gray
Reports in June suggested that Preston were closing in on the signing of striker Gray whilst Lancs Live noted that North End did chase his signature.
Watford had allowed Gray to leave the club on a free transfer at the end of his contract and Preston seemed ready to strike a deal.
Yet just a couple of weeks later, Gray had instead moved to Greece by agreeing a deal with Aris Thessaloniki.
Intriguingly, Gray was joined at Aris by Moses Odubajo; the pair share an agent and Preston also looked into signing Odubajo.
Gray, 31, fit the bill of a proven Championship goalscorer just as Lowe wanted.
Add in that Gray is close friends with Preston ace Daniel Johnson and a move seemed a real possibility but it just wasn’t meant to be.
Some questioned Gray’s ambition after making the move to Greece, but think about it; more money, better climate and the chance of European action with Aris.
That’s attractive, even if Aris ended up falling short of making the Europa Conference League group stage.
Gray has been playing a key role for Aris and scored in a 2-0 win over Asteras Tripoli on Sunday.
When you add in Europa Conference League qualifiers, Gray now has seven goals and two assists in just eight games for Aris.
You can argue that Gray is the kind of signing Preston should avoid in terms of being over 30 and commanding big wages; we had those concerns too.
Yet we’re now seeing Gray’s goalscoring prowess with Aris and Lowe will surely wish those goals were being scored in a Preston shirt rather than an Aris one.