Preston’s planning for the January window took something of a blow in December, with Joe Savage deciding to leave the club.
Savage was head of recruitment at Deepdale, but decided to move on when Hearts made him an offer he just couldn’t refuse.
Hearts made Savage their new sporting director, giving him much more control than he ever had at Preston, and he decided to return to Scotland.
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Savage was a trusted lieutenant of Alex Neil; they worked together at Hamilton Academical and Norwich City before reuniting at Preston.
Some had questioned Savage’s role at Preston, but it’s hard to really tell who was in charge of transfers during his time at the club given Peter Ridsdale’s involvement.
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Savage has now been speaking to Edinburgh Live about his move, admitting that he could be interested in raiding Preston for fringe players if possible.
Savage feels that he has a strong relationship with Neil and Frankie McAvoy, so would be willing to ask for a helping hand from North End having already taken Josh Ginnelly on loan from Preston.
“Going forward if we feel there is a player at Preston that they might not want I like to think Alex can contact me. We’ve certainly got that with Josh Ginnelly,” said Savage.
“I’m hoping I have a lot of good relationships in football that I can turn to a lot of people and say ‘we might need this or we might need that, can you give us a helping hand’. Alex and Frankie at Preston will be at the top of that list,” he added.