Preston have been linked with Wigan Athletic’s training ground for some time now, and it seems that the deal is finally set to go through.
North End looked at the facility earlier this week, and reports from Wigan Today suggest that the deal has now been agreed for Preston to move into the Latics’ training ground.
Wigan’s training ground is based in Euxton, meaning it isn’t too far from Preston, and it’s stated that Preston will be forking out £1.6million to take it off Wigan’s hands.
Wigan need cash to ease their drastic financial situation, and North End have pounced to land their training ground for £600,000 less than the price Wigan paid four years.
Let’s start this off by stating that there isn’t much joy to be taken from this situation; whilst Preston and Wigan have something of a rivalry, it’s tough to see a club go through this kind of financial nightmare and we hope they can find a saviour soon.
We have to look at this from Preston’s perspective though, and having seen some disgruntled comments on Twitter yesterday, we wanted to throw our support behind this move.
Yes, it’s frustrating that North End’s plans for a new training complex in Ingol look to be hitting the buffers, but this move makes perfect sense rather than spending money on a short-term fix at Springfields.
The LEP had the cost of the Ingol facility at £10million, but progress has been slow to invisible over the last three years. North End then communicated in February that there had been no substantial income from the housing scheme attached to the facility, so planning permission had been submitted for improvements to Springfields.
Now, rather than spend £10million on the Ingol site, Preston have landed a training ground for £1.6million. It may not be the dream that North End envisaged, but it’s a setup that is at least to a decent Championship standard. It even housed Bolton during their Premier League days.
Some fans have wondered whether this is really necessary, and that the £1.6million should have been spent on a new striker instead.
Firstly, whilst we can’t say with great certainty, the budget for facilities likely has no bearing on the budget Preston have for new signings, and a new striker will likely be pursued regardless.
This was though an important acquisition. North End’s Springfields training ground has served the club well, but this now provides Preston with an immediate upgrade – and that can help the club for some time.
This can help improve the current squad improve and even provide more of an attraction to potential signings, whilst this may also allow the youth team to move into Springfields and improve their surroundings.
We’ve often felt that Preston are trying to sell the dream of being a Premier League club whilst still acting like a League One club in some senses, with many infrastructure issues compared to the rest of the Championship – and we understand that the financial situation makes that difficult.
This now helps North End improve their facilities immediately, and take steps forward off the pitch to hopefully advance on it – and for the future of the club, this investment makes perfect sense, even with a striker needed.