Preston North End return for pre-season training today with an enormous amount of work to do Ryan Lowe’s squad.
It doesn’t feel like five minutes since the 2022-23 came to an end for PNE with a thumping defeat at home to Sunderland.
North End were played off the park in the second half of that game, which didn’t exactly leave fans excited about the future.
The preparations for the 2023-24 season are underway and pre-season training starts today ahead of pre-season fixtures.
There again isn’t much for North End fans to get excited about though, with a lot of work needing to be done.
There will be some notable absentees from the get-go today, heavily limiting Ryan Lowe’s squad.
Ali McCann and Alan Browne have been on international duty and will surely have some extended time off rather than turn up at Euxton today.
Ched Evans and Emil Riis remain out of action as they make their way back from considerable injuries, leaving PNE without a single recognised senior striker for the first day of pre-season.
There is still no news about Daniel Johnson – currently away with Jamaica – or Josh Onomah, whose contracts expire in a matter of days and could be on the move elsewhere.
Calvin Ramsay has joined on loan from Liverpool but won’t actually start his career as a PNE player until mid-July, so won’t be involved in pre-season training today.
Loanees Troy Parrott, Liam Delap, Tom Cannon and Alvaro Fernandez have gone back to their parent clubs.
That leaves a skeleton squad for Lowe to start pre-season with and just a matter of days to go until PNE’s first pre-season game against Bamber Bridge.
Maybe we see some trialists turn up for the first day of pre-season training just like Ben Woodburn did last summer.
Without that, PNE will be relying on young players to step up and make an impact whilst major transfer business is needed.
PNE need to get some new faces in before heading off to Spain next week and the pressure will increase very quickly given the sheer number of signings North End are seeking.