Preston North End’s hopes of re-signing Aston Villa ace Cameron Archer may have been boosted with the striker allegedly preferring to come back to Deepdale.
North End ended their season with a superb 4-1 victory over Middlesbrough on Sunday afternoon.
Emil Riis bagged a brace whilst Alan Browne was also on the scoresheet, with Dael Fry putting through his own net too.
This was an outstanding performance and a perfect way to end the season for Preston.
It was also a goodbye to a host of players as loan trio Daniel Iversen, Sepp van den Berg and Cameron Archer followed Paul Huntington out of Deepdale.
They always say to never fall in love with loan players but Iversen, Van den Berg and Archer have made that almost impossible.
Whilst Iversen and Van den Berg have been at Preston for 18 months, Archer only joined North End back in January.
Ryan Lowe used his connections with Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard to secure Archer on loan for the rest of the season.
Archer’s time at Preston has been a roaring success; seven goals in 20 games including the winner against Blackpool in April.
Fans have been praying that Archer will return to Preston for another loan spell next season but that rests in the hands of Gerrard.
If we had to guess, Archer will spend pre-season with Villa and any loan move would only materialise late in the summer window.
Whether Preston are willing to wait that long remains to be seen, but one eye will be on Villa’s incoming transfer business too.
Add in goals for both Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings for Villa on Saturday and Archer may actually be better off staying for another year at Preston.
Lowe has now opened up on Archer’s future whilst speaking to Lancs Live after Saturday’s win over Boro.
Lowe claims that Archer has told him that, if Villa make him available, he would like to come back to Preston as his top choice.
The North End boss added that he thinks Archer needs another season at Preston just like Iversen and Van den Berg before then becoming a Premier League regular with Villa.
“I spoke to Cam on Friday about his stay, how well he’s done and how good he’s been and everything else. If he becomes available, he’s basically told me there’s only one place he’d like to go and that’s back here – so that is a big plus for us,” said Lowe.
“I look at Cam, he is four years older than my lad and my lad is still a baby at 16! Cam is 20 but he’s still a baby, who is taking everything in his stride. I told him there is going to be loads spoken about him, loads of people throwing loads of money at Aston Villa to try and buy him. I don’t think it is the right thing to do, for Aston Villa to sell him, I’ve already mentioned that to Stevie (Gerrard).”
“He needs to stay around. I think he is a Premier League player because he’s a goal scorer – a Jermain Defoe type. But I think if he goes out on loan to us again next season, he will find his feet, find his level and kick on the following year – just like Sepp van den Berg and Daniel Iversen have done. If you want to mirror anything, look what those two have done; they will go on to bigger and better probably and I’m sure Cam can do the same,” he added.