Middlesbrough want Preston striker Emil Riis and Chris Wilder has commented on the difficulty he’s facing when it comes to new signings.
Preston have enjoyed a fairly quiet summer in terms of facing interest in Ryan Lowe’s key players.
Yet with just a couple of weeks of the transfer window to go, Preston are now facing some unwanted attention.
Middlesbrough are interested in signing Danish hitman Riis and have already opened talks according to the Northern Echo.
SAKA, ANTONY AND 10 PREMIER LEAGUE STARS HEADING TO THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP
It’s stated that Preston value Riis at more than £10million so it’s now over to Boro to try and come up with the right offer.
You may think that Boro’s attacking recruitment is pretty much done after paying millions to sign both Marcus Forss and Matthew Hoppe.
MORE PRESTON STORIES
Yet the Teesside Gazette report that Boro still want two strikers brought in before the deadline to round out Wilder’s striking options.
Wilder loved signing a striker or two at Sheffield United so maybe we shouldn’t be too surprised.
Boro have walked away from a deal for Groningen hitman Jorgen Strand Larsen and their attention is now firmly placed on Riis.
Preston fans understandably don’t want to see Riis leave; the 24-year-old hit 20 goals in all competitions last season with three of them coming against Boro.
Yet having been a £1.2million signing from Randers in 2020, you could understand if the club fancied taking the profit.
It’s now a waiting game for Preston but Boro boss Wilder has been speaking about his recruitment attempts.
Wilder has told the Teesside Gazette that he is confident he will get the four signings he wants before the transfer deadline.
Wilder noted that an ‘incredible’ amount of work is being done on potential new signings, telling fans that it can sometimes be hard to secure quality signings with club’s unwilling to sell – which may well be Preston over Riis.
“I am confident we’ll get the four in by the end of the window. Sometimes it can happen pretty quickly and sometimes it can be drawn out. There is an awful lot of work going on every day to ensure things do happen,” said Wilder.
“There isn’t anybody sitting on their hands and not wanting to make things happen. We all want to make things happen but it isn’t, as I keep saying, straightforward. It isn’t Championship Manager or Fantasy Football where we just click a button and we’ve picked our team. We’re after good players, we face competition for players, clubs sometimes don’t want to let them out for the amount we are willing to offer, and so there is an incredible amount of work and negotiating, persuading and a little bit of luck at times I think as well. But we’re confident, when that window shuts, we’ll have the players in to batten ourselves down,” he added.