I havent heard of this geezer , he any good?

Dont think he is that good really Swansea didnt want to sign him so why should we we are after an experienced defender in England and he isnt

If he's a swansea reject he can't be that good then

Thats what i thought

We are still after Gregan trying to get him onloan so i have heared and Lucketti is another he looks more likely to come i think.

Preston North End have allowed rookie keeper Chris Neal to join Shrewsbury on loan after coming back from a broken finger.
Neal whi is behind Carlo Nash and Andy Lonergan for the no1 spot is expected to join his new team mates for training on friday and take a place on the bench for the Shrews game against Darlington on saturday.

Preston North End attacking midfielder Adam Nowland made his comeback today in a behind closed doors friendly against Bolton Wanderers.
Nowland who has been out of action since breaking his leg against Norwich in the new year and was given 20 minutes to gain some fitness

The game was played to give players like Adam some much needed match fitness after the reserve game against Chester was called off.

Other injured players Brett Ormerod,Neil Mellor,Callum Davidson,Andy Smith also featured in the game which Preston won 1-0 thanks to a Joe Anyinsah goal.

French defender Sofiane Zaaboub has failed to clinch a contract at Preston North End.

Zaaboub has been training with the Championship club in the hope of earning a deal with Paul Simpson's side.

But, after featuring in two reserve games, the left back has failed to meet the requirements of Preston boss Simpson.

"He's done okay in both of the games and he's been right in training, but I've let him know I'm not going to take it any further," said Simpson.

"Due to all the registration rules, we were allowed to play him in two games, so I had to make a decision.

"I'm looking to bring players in who are going to go straight into our first team, to dislodge the players that are there.

"With Sof I didn't quite feel that was the situation, so I had to inform him I wasn't going to take it any further."

The former St Etienne and FC Brussels full back had already trained with Plymouth Argyle and Swansea City prior to pitching up at Deepdale.

Simpson also shot down claims that he is to make a loan bid for former crowed favourite Sean Gregan of Leeds saying that Seans name had been mentioned by an agent but he wasnt intrested.

Preston North End can confirm that midfielder Brian O'Neil is set to retire from playing professional football.

The former Scottish international has been in discussions with the Preston North End board and club management and although there are still a few issues to be resolved it is likely that Brian has played his last game of professional football.

Im gutted that he has BON has decided to retire such a good player but in the end he has picked up to many injury's and he doesntthink he will ever get 100% match fit again so i understand

Wish him the best of luck for the future been a great servant to the club for the last 4 years.

Paul McKenna is proving himself to be the top pass master in the Championship. The Preston midfielder has made 198 successful passes in the opposition's half so far this season according to the Actim Index - the Official Player Ratings of the Coca-Cola Championship. The Actim statistics show that the Lilywhites' longest serving player is the 18th highest ranked midfielder in the Championship.

McKenna is joined in the Top 10 passers by two players from league leaders Cardiff City. Summer signing Stephen McPhail is ranked second, with 191 successfully completed passes. The former Leeds United midfielder is the fourth highest ranked midfielder in the Actim Index overall. McPhail's Bluebirds team mate Riccardo Scimeca is ranked top of the Actim Index overall, and is third in the passing rankings, having made 181 completed passes.

There are appearances in the Top 10 from players from seven other Championship clubs. Southend midfielder Kevin Maher is ranked as the fourth best passer, making 158 passes in 10 appearances so far this season. David Brammer, from Stoke City, and Norwich City's Youssef Safri are ranked fifth and sixth, making 157 and 153 passes respectively. Luton Town midfielder Richard Langley has made 152 passes in 10 appearances for the Hatters, and is ranked as the Championship's seventh best passer.

Barnsley's Paul Hayes is the only striker to appear in the Top 10 passers list, making 149 passes so far this season, in addition to his four goals for the Tykes. His performances so far this season see him ranked as the seventh highest striker overall in the Actim Index.

The other two players making it into the Top 10 are Coventry City's Stephen Hughes and Leicester City's Andy Johnson. Hughes is ninth, making 149 passes in 10 league appearances, while Johnson is ranked 10th, with the Welsh-born midfielder making 148 passes for the Foxes.

Preston North End have today allowed 3 of their players to leave the club onloan to get some much needed match fitness.

The first to go out was goalkeeper Andrew Lonergan who has joined Swindonj Town on a months loan.Andrew who has not played for Preston in over two years due to 2 cruciate knee ligament injury has been an ever present on the bench and manager Paul Simpson thought it would be best to allow Andy some match time.

The second player to leave is midfielder Jason Jarrett who has gone onloan to championship side Hull City.Jason who had started the first 6 games this season has not featured since early september and Paul Simpson has given him the chance to prove his worth while on loan at Hull.

The last player to leave was striker Andy Smith who has just come back to full fitness after a series of knee injurys and with the strikeforce at Preston doing so well at the moment Andy has gone onloan to Cheltenham Town in League one to gain some much needed match fitness.

just thought i would introduce myself glad to be here

Nice one buddy glad to have a fellow northend supporter here to back my corner hope you stick around

Ty posted on another site and got pelters for being a "jock" but any how have been made welcome here

Yeah we are a good bunch here and have members from all round the globe so you will fit right in no probs

Preston North End confirmed last night that young irish midfielder Alan McCormack has signed for championship strugglers Southend Utd onloan with a view to a permanent deal in the new year.
Alan who handed in a written transfer request this week stated his desire to play more games and with the arrival of Tommy Miller onloan from Sunderland pushed him further down the midfield pecking order.

Preston North End today confirmed that the club are in talks with goalkeeper Carlo Nash about extending his deal which still has 18 months to run.

Nash who has been an ever present since his switch from Middelsbrough in january 2005 holds Preston's all time clean sheet record of 23 has been first class this season making some vital saves in matches and iis regarded as one of the best keepers outside the premiership.

Preston defender Callum Davidson is close to making his fist-team return after overcoming injury and he could play against Luton this weekend.

Davidson last started a match back in March and he has made only three substitute appearances since suffering a recurring knee and groin injury.

But after seeing a specialist last weekend, Davidson has been given the all-clear to push harder in training.

Manager Paul Simpson has hinted that Davidson could feature on Saturday.

Preston boss Paul Simpson fears Patrick Agyemang faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Agyemang is struggling with a long-standing hernia problem.

The 26-year-old, who underwent surgery on the problem in the summer, missed last weekend's defeat to Birmingham after the injury flared up in training.

Simpson is hoping the versatile attacker will not need a new operation on the injury and that rest could cure the problem.

"We're looking at a strong possibility he will need a spell on the sidelines to rest it," Simpson told the Lancashire Evening Post.

"He's going to see a specialist this week to try and get to the bottom of this problem and find out exactly what we need to do to get rid of it.

"We'd hoped it would go away but it doesn't look like it's going to, so it's best to get it dealt with now.

"I don't think we're looking at surgery but he may need to rest for a while."

Preston striker David Nugent insists he is happy to stay at the club.

Nugent is one of the most sought-after players outside the Premiership following his goalscoring exploits at Preston.

A number of clubs have been linked with a move for the England Under-21 international when the transfer window reopens in January, but Nugent claims he wants to stay at Preston until the end of the season as they fight for promotion from the Championship.

" I like the speculation. It's nice to see your name in the paper - but I'm a Preston player," said Nugent.

"We are fourth in the league. The last couple of years we have got into the play-offs and have come so close to going up.

"I want to stay here and try to get us in the Premiership.

"In an ideal world I'd like to stay at Preston. If the chairman and the manager get offers, they will either reject them or accept them.

"But I'm happy at Preston and want to get them to the Premiership.

"At the very least I'd like to stop to the end of the season."

Simpson agrees Preston extension

Preston manager Paul Simpson has agreed to extend his contract at the club by two years until 2011. Simpson originally signed a three-year deal when he joined the club in the summer but has been rewarded after helping them challenge for promotion.

"When I came here there were clauses that they could extend my contract by an extra year or two depending on how they felt things were going," he said.

"They didn't need to tell me until the end of the season.

He added: "I am delighted that the directors and chairman feel I must be doing something right for them to give me the two- year extension.

"It is a reward for what we have done and what the players have done but the league table is the one that shows that we are going in the right direction."

Preston are currently third in the Championship and chairman Derek Shaw said: "We wanted to secure Paul for as long as we could

"He was very agreeable to it and we managed to get it all completed early last week.

"It is great news for the supporters, he has done a great job since he came here and hopefully we can push on.

"If we can get as many points as we did in the second half of last season we should be in a very good position at the end of the season."

Preston chairman Derek Shaw has reassured Paul Simpson that funds will be made available in the January transfer window.

Simpson was rewarded this week for a fine start to his tenure at Deepdale with a new five-year deal that binds his long-term future to the Championship promotion hopefuls.

Shaw has been delighted with the manner in which Simpson has adapted to managing at a higher level, having previously only been in charge at Carlisle and Rochdale in the lower divisions.

With Preston very much in the hunt for automatic promotion, Shaw is ready to back his manager if and when the right players become available.

"Without a doubt we will try and back the manager to the best of our abilities," he told the club's official website.

"If there are players out there who can help the club at the right kind of fee and the right kind of wage then we will do our utmost to bring them in.

"Paul's an extremely calm man, I think he could have been a bomb disposal man with they way he goes about things, he never seems to get rattled.

"He has been a pleasure to work with since he joined us in the summer and we are very pleased."

Lonergan signs new Preston deal

Preston keeper Andy Lonergan has signed a three-and-half-year contract extension with the club.
The new deal for the 23-year-old will run until 2011 and there is also the option of a further year.

"He has shown what a quality keeper he is and is pushing Carlo Nash very close for a starting place," Preston boss Paul Simpson told the club's website.

"We all know it has been a frustrating couple of seasons for him with injury but he just has to be patient now."

PNE boss Paul Simpson admits to pne.com that he may be tempted to offer Michael Ricketts a deal if he impresses in a forthcoming reserve game.

The former Bolton, Middlesbrough and England striker was spotted training at North End's Springfields complex last week, Ricketts has spent the last few months out of the game after being released by Southend earlier in the season.

It was thought that Simpson had allowed the player use of the North End training facilities as a favour and to allow him to get some sharpness back, but after impressing the PNE management with his attitude the striker may well be playing himself into Simpson's thoughts.

"Michael Ricketts has been training with us now for about a week to ten days," Simpson told pne.com.

"He's been over in the United States getting himself fit, he's got himself in really good shape and he is looking very good in training.

"We are hoping that we can get a look at him in a reserve game in the first week of January and look to see whether he is up to what we need."

Simpson admits that if he can rediscover that old Bolton Wanderers magic then he could be a useful asset to PNE.

"He's a fantastic football player, he just let himself go a little bit and lost his fitness, he put a lot of weight on but he has got rid of all that now.

"He's been working with a personal trainer, so his cardio fitness and all of those things are in really good shape.

"He just needs to get back to playing football and that's what we have been giving him over the last ten days, he's back with us on Thursday and we will see how he goes if we can get him into a game."

Preston boss Paul Simpson insists he will decide whether David Nugent is sold or not.

Simpson insists Nugent could leave 'one day' but at that point it will only be he who decides whether to let North End's prized asset leave.

"The day will possibly come where he may have to go," said Simpson. "But until that day, I want to keep him.

"I hope there will be comings and goings this month, but there will only be comings and goings if it is to my knowledge.

"If we believe there is a player out there who can strengthen the squad, then we will try and bring him in.

"If we believe there are players here who are not part or who don't want to be part of what we are trying to do here, then we will do everything to move them on as well.

"I accept that the speculation over Nuge is going to carry on, especially after he has scored four in four games. But I say 'fantastic, keep making headlines'.

"I'm not bothered about that and I won't lose any sleep about it.

"We want to keep Dave Nugent at this club. We have some good footballers here and I think you could see from his reaction when he scored against Derby, he is with us and he wants to help us to be successful."

On the transfer front, North End confirmed that Brian Stock and Alan McCormack have both left the club as their respective loan moves at Doncaster and Southend have become permanent.

McCormack has signed a two-and-half year deal with The Shrimpers - who have in-turn allowed Arnau Riera to return to Sunderland.

Preston insist Nugent will stay

Preston chairman Derek Shaw insists £5m-rated striker David Nugent will not be sold in the January transfer window.
Sheffield United, Portsmouth and Everton have been linked with a move for the 21-year-old.

Shaw said: "We have 19 cup finals left, and David Nugent is not for sale. We want to get to the Premier League.

"David Nugent has been tremendous for us, and I am sure he will play in the Premier League. But we want that to be with Preston North End."

He added: "We do not want to sell him.

"He will be a big player for us in these 19 cup finals, and we will assess the situation again after that."