Preston have confirmed their first signing of transfer deadline day, with Liam Lindsay arriving from Stoke City.
North End have agreed a loan deal until the end of the season for Lindsay, giving him a chance to get his career back on track.
The 25-year-old hasn’t played a single game for Stoke over the last year, falling completely out of favour under Michael O’Neill.
Lindsay was previously a star with Partick Thistle and Barnsley, and made a big £2.5million move to Stoke in the summer of 2019.
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It hasn’t worked at all for Lindsay with the Potters, and he now heads to Preston to try and play games and ultimately earn a permanent move.
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Lindsay is a tall centre back at 6ft 4in tall, but the main selling point here is that he is a left-footed centre back who can play out from the back.
That’s vital given that Ben Davies has now joined Liverpool, with Lindsay arriving to slot into Davies’s role in the Preston back four.
Alex Neil has told the club’s official website that he things Lindsay is a good bit of business, and had his eye on Lindsay as a replacement for whenever Davies went – which has happened very quickly.
Neil praised Lindsay as a player with a ‘good presence’, and is looking for him to succeed between now and the end of the season.
“It is good to get this bit of business done,” said Neil. “The Ben Davies one came out of the blue so it’s not something we expected, but he have obviously been keeping an eye on left sided centre backs in case that did happen.”
“Liam is a guy who has played at the level, he’s been at Stoke, he’s been at Barnsley, he’s a good age, he’s left-sided and left footed and I think it makes sense to bring someone in who can hopefully do well between now and the end of the season. He’s a good presence, a good size, and we are really hopeful for him. He hasn’t played a lot of football this year and we want to make sure that he gets his season up and running,” he added.