Preston North End have snapped up Liverpool striker Layton Stewart, handing him a three-year deal at Deepdale.
PNE wanted to add another striker even after bringing Will Keane back to the club from Wigan Athletic last week.
Stewart emerged as PNE’s top target and the Liverpool Echo suggested on Friday that talks over a deal had been held.
North End have now got their man, confirming Stewart’s arrival on a deal until the summer of 2026.
The Athletic claim that Liverpool have inserted a buy-back clause into the deal, potentially allowing him to return to Anfield down the line.
Here is our reaction as Stewart makes his move to Deepdale…
Deepdale Digest writer verdict
Olly Dawes: North End clearly needed another striker.
Will Keane can score goals but he’s not a lone striker; he would prefer to be dropping a little deeper to get on the ball and using him up top on his own didn’t quite work against Ipswich Town in midweek.
Emil Riis and Ched Evans aren’t exactly close to first-team action just yet and PNE have now moved to bring in Stewart.
We were big fans of the old PNE approach of signing Premier League youngsters like Ben Pearson, Daniel Johnson and Callum Robinson.
Not every signing of that ilk will work out but it’s nice to see North End going back to that idea.
Stewart has scored plenty of goals in the Liverpool youth ranks but his progress was halted by a major ACL injury in 2021.
That will concern some and heading straight into Championship action won’t be easy but Stewart has some potential at just 20 and could prove to be a masterstroke if Ryan Lowe and nurture him as he did with fellow Liverpudlian Tom Cannon.
Josh McLaughlin: It’s been some time since PNE bought a young player from a top-six Premier League club.
Ben Pearson was a great example of how successful it can be but the signings of Josh Harrop and Liam Grimshaw show it’s always a gamble.
Layton Stewart is just 20 and hasn’t had any loan moves away from Liverpool. He has just 66 minutes of senior football to his name but Tom Cannon arrived last season at the same age with limited game time and he established himself very well in the Championship.
Stewart arrives highly rated and the buy-back clause included in the deal by Liverpool proves that.
It’s hard for any striker to break through at a top club where the demands are so high and there huge transfer feesare being spent.
Stewart now has a great opportunity at North End and I would much prefer us going for this type of player than someone much further on in their career from the lower leagues or Ireland for example.
With Ched Evans and Emil Riis out for another month or two, Stewart may get plenty of chances straight away in a Preston shirt.