Preston decided to offload striker Jayden Stockley in January, and Charlton Athletic ended up winning the race to sign him.
Bristol Rovers were keen on a deal as Paul Tisdale pursued a reunion, but Stockley picked a move down to South London.
In two years at Preston, Stockley never really managed to nail down a starting role, and a dismal showing at Wycombe Wanderers in January ended up spelling the end for the former Exeter City star.
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Stockley has enjoyed a decent start to life with the Addicks, scoring against Portsmouth and impressing fans in the process.
On Saturday, Stockley added a second Charlton goal to his tally, heading in an equaliser to make it 2-2 against Gillingham – buy the Addicks lost 3-2 as ex-Preston loanee Chuks Aneke was sent off.
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Charlton may already hope to keep Stockley permanently, and it’s unlikely that Preston would put up much of a fight to keep him.
Gillingham boss Steve Evans seems to be a huge fan of Stockley too, claiming to Kent Online that he ‘certainly’ wanted to sign Stockley and spoke to both Alex Neil and Peter Ridsdale about a deal.
Evans claims that pretty much every League One club wanted to sign Stockley, but Preston were making demands beyond Gillingham, with Charlton one of the few capable of paying up.
“When Preston announced they were letting him out on loan I don’t think there was a club in League One who didn’t want him. We certainly wanted him,” said Evans.
“I spoke to Alex Neil and was in contact via messages with Peter Ridsdale and the reality is that we couldn’t get anywhere near the type of money that Preston expected to recover. You therefore realise his choices would be some big clubs in League 1 and he chose Charlton,” he added.