Will Keane became Preston North End’s fourth signing of the summer, as he joined from recently relegated Wigan Athletic. The acquisition of the 30-year-old is sure to divide opinion, with many still remembering his loan spell with the club in 2015.
At the start of Preston’s first season back in the Championship following their League One play-off final victory in 2015, a 22-year-old Will Keane joined on loan from Manchester United. The striker had previously spent time on loan at Queens Park Rangers and Sheffield Wednesday without setting the world alight.
Keane arrived at Deepdale expecting to get regular game time, and made his debut on the opening game of the season. He started alongside Joe Garner and hit the post in an entertaining 0-0 draw against Middlesbrough.
That season saw Preston have plenty of striking options. As well as Garner, Keane had Stevie May, Eoin Doyle, Jordan Hugill and Jermaine Beckford to contend with. The latter had his injury problems that season, as did May, but Grayson was happy to rotate with two strikers starting in a similar formation to the one Ryan Lowe uses now.
Keane’s first goal for the club came in a League Cup 1st Round victory away at Crewe Alexandra. Goals were hard to come by for the rest of the team in the opening months of that 2015/16 season. After beating MK Dons in the second game of the season, North End did not win again until a 3-0 victory away to Charlton Athletic in the 12th round of fixtures.
Just 11 goals were scored in the first 16 games of that season, so understandably strikers were in and out of the team, as a winning formula was trying to be found.
Will Keane eventually scored his first and what turned out to be his only league goal for Preston, in a memorable victory at Turf Moor. On a cold December afternoon, Will came up against his twin brother Michael, as North End beat a Burnley side; who would go on to secure promotion that season, 2-0 with a fantastic team display. Keane scored a lovely solo goal to give The Lilywhites the lead in the second half, before Daniel Johnson secured the three points.
There would only be five more games for Keane in a Preston shirt before he went back to Manchester United at the halfway stage of the season. He was injured for the majority of the second half of the season, as were a lot of other United strikers. In fact Keane may have got a golden opportunity if he was fit to start a home tie in the Europa League against Midtjylland. Instead it was a certain Marcus Rashford who got the nod, and hasn’t looked back since.
Keane’s career has had a lot of ups and downs since his first spell with the club, but he arrives with a clean slate and on the back of a promising three seasons with Wigan Athletic.