Cameron Archer is expected to go through pre-season with Aston Villa’s first team after impressing on loan at Preston North End.
That’s according to the Birmingham Mail, who claim that Villa want to keep Archer around and won’t be selling him this summer.
The plan is for Archer to head back to Villa this summer and be ‘heavily involved’ during Steven Gerrard’s pre-season preparations.
However, it is stated that a loan late in the summer window is a possibility for Archer, depending on how Gerrard sees his striking options.
That at least gives Preston some hope of securing Archer on a new loan deal in August, facing something of a wait to find out the striker’s future.
Preston took Archer on loan in January, winning the race for his signature in what has proven to be a major coup.
Archer has hit four goals in nine games for Preston, making a huge impact in a North End shirt.
Ryan Lowe’s relationship with fellow Liverpudlian Steven Gerrard was vital to Preston securing Archer’s signature.
The hope is that Gerrard will again loan Archer to Preston for next season too, especially having seen him excel at Deepdale.
Villa do have two proven strikers in Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings whilst Keinan Davis will be returning from Nottingham Forest this summer.
That means a path to first-team action isn’t exactly clear for Archer, whereas he would be playing a starring role under Lowe at Preston.
The fear for North End is that Villa do loan Archer out again but instead send him to a ‘bigger’ Championship club to try and further his development with a promotion-chasing side.
The coming months promise to bring ups and downs regarding Archer’s future, with a final decision surely many, many months away.