Preston North End - The English De Toekomst

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The 2016/17 Premier League fixtures have been released this morning and we kick off our campaign at Deepdale against Fulham on the 13th August. Our first away game of the season sees us make the short trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool whilst our last away game is against Premier League champions Tottenham. On the final day of the season we take on Manchester City at Deepdale. Other key games during the season are listed below:

29th October - Manchester United [H]
10th January - Liverpool [H]
18th February - Arsenal [H]
11th March - Chelsea [H]

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Will be interesting to see your transfers this season. Good luck in the Prem
 
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Season Four

Summer Transfer Window Update

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Transfers

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Ten players were brought into the club ahead of our first season back in the highest division in England and, as you see, we brought someone in on Deadline Day which will be announced soon. First up was the transfer of Florian Royer that was already confirmed before the transfer window was open, he joins from Auxerre and will spend the upcoming season in the U18s. Mario Pugliese rejoins PNE on another year long loan deal from Manchester United despite the affiliation between the clubs ending over the summer. Another transfer that was already confirmed before the window was open was Zois Pappas moving on a free transfer after his contract expired at Atromitos. He'll be a key player for us this season and, at only 19, he'll develop into a fantastic player which can be sold on for profit. Two strikers then joined the club for a combined fee of £250,000 although one of them was a free transfer. Mahmoud Majid Abbas is a striker from Iraq with a sensational goalscoring record at international level whilst Esmael Goncalves is a striker with plenty of pace and joins from Estoril in Portugal. With Scott Fox moving to Spurs for £1.3m we needed to bring in two goalkeepers, one for the number one spot and one for backup. Przemyslaw Tyton will become our #1 goalkeeper for the next couple of seasons as he joins on a free following the expiration of his contract at PSV whilst Ibrahima Sy moves on a year long loan from Marseille to be backup for him. I broke the transfer record at the club for an incoming player when we spent £6.5m on 16 year old Jawad Tran, £4m upfront and £2.5m over a period of time and he'll be one of the best midfielders in the world one day. Finally Kristjan Cretnik was brought in from Maribor for £400,000. He's another right back but I'm hopeful he'll develop to a high level and be good backup due to his size.

Florian Royer

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Mario Pugliese

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Zois Pappas

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Mahmoud Majid Abbas

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Esmael Goncalves

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Przemyslaw Tyton

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Jawad Tran

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Ibrahima Sy

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Kristjan Cretnik

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It's been a mixed bag of results in August as it started out with a 2-2 draw at home against Fulham but it was a pleasing result after being 2-0 down at one point. That was followed by a 7 goal thriller at Anfield as we lost 4-3 but it was a cracking game, as you can see below, even though we lost late on after being 3-2 up. We then won two games in a row, the first a win over Accrington Stanley in the Capital One Cup before getting our first league win of the season against Southampton.

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Key Player

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News

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I was offered the role of England U21s manager but it was swiftly turned down so I can concentrate on achieving my goals at PNE.​
 
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Season Four

New Signing Press Conference

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11.55am

The newly refurbished media room at Deepdale is ready and waiting for manager Michael Henson and his new signing. Media organisations have packed into the room and we'll be expecting them in around 5 minutes time.

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12.00pm

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12.05pm

Michael Henson

"Hello and welcome to the press conference to announce our new signing. As many of you will be aware by now, we have signed Ciro Immobile on a deal until June 2020. I'd also like to take this moment to announce that I have signed a new deal with the club and will be hear until at least June 2020 as well."

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Vinny O'Connor (Sky Sports News)
"Michael, how pleasing is it for you to pull off a deal like this and bring in a highly rated striker to a newly promoted club?"

Michael Henson
"I'm extremely pleased to have pulled off a deal to sign Ciro as he is a fantastic striker. I'm very surprised that he was released by Torino but after speaking to him it seems that he may have had some problems with their management team in the past. He'll be able to keep the club in the Premier League just by himself as he will score a lot of goals this season."

Paul Wheelock (Lancashire Telegraph)
"Ciro, I know your English isn't the best but why did you choose Preston North End?"
"Ciro, so che il vostro inglese non è la migliore, ma perché hai scelto Preston North End?"

Ciro Immobile
"I'm very happy to be here at Preston. I chose them because they have big ambitions and a good set up here. Michael is a good manager and will lead the club to big things."
"Sono molto felice di essere qui a Preston. Li ho scelto perché hanno grandi ambizioni e un buon set up qui. Michael è un buon manager e porterà il club a grandi cose."

Stan Collymore (Talksport)
"My question is to both of you. What can Ciro bring to the club that a young English striker can't?"
"La mia domanda è per entrambi. Cosa può Ciro portare al club che un giovane attaccante inglese non può?"

Michael Henson
"Ciro is already an accomplished striker with a great goal record. I know that if I throw him into any game, he'll more than likely score a goal. He won't need a high level of training to become a proven goalscorer as he already is one. A young English striker, Paul Smith for example, will need a few years training and tutoring to develop fully to then become a proven goalscorer."

Ciro Immobile
"I can score goals in any game. I've proven in my home country that I'm a goalscorer and now I'm looking forward to scoring in the English league. I'm better than any English striker."
"Posso segnare gol in qualsiasi gioco. Ho dimostrato nel mio paese che io sono un goleador e adesso non vedo l'ora al gol nel campionato inglese. Sono meglio di qualsiasi attaccante inglese."

Rosie Swarbick (Lancashire Evening Post)
"Michael, it will be Preston's first season back in the Premier League for a while. Can Ciro fire you to a mid-table finish in your first year back?"

Michael Henson
"Absolutely, without a doubt. He'll definitely be up there at the end of the season in the goalscoring ranks with the likes of Luis Suarez etc. I'm just hoping that he won't live up to his name and be useless!"

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Dan Walker (BBC Sport)
"You've just extended your contract until 2020, what do you plan on doing between now and then?"

Michael Henson
"I've got four seasons to plan so I'm hoping that we can at least be in Europe by then but I'm not too fussed whether that is the Europa League or Champions League. Also I'd like to win a domestic cup, preferably the FA Cup. My aim for the academy is to achieve a Level 1 status and be producing a high number of young players each year to sell on for a large profit."

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You can now purchase the 2016/17 kit with new signing Ciro Immobile on the back of the shirts.

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As a Preston fan this story is like my dream :'). Keep up the good work.
 
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Season Four

Mid Season Update

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Wow, what a start to the Premier League campaign! Apart from the opening day we haven't drawn a league game and we've been playing some exciting football. It seems that when we lose a league game we go on a three game losing streak before getting back to winning ways and that has happened twice already this campaign. Some of the defeats have been very frustrating as well as we've been in the lead before collapsing against Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City. However I can't fault the team for their efforts and we currently lie 3rd in the league. If you remember our first season in the Championship we did something similar but this time I can't see it continuing to the end of the season.

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We met the boards expectation of getting through to the Fourth Round before crashing out to oil rich Manchester City - another game where we in the lead and through it away! I used this competition to play my youngsters and I will continue to do so in seasons to come as it's a great way to get some first team experience.

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Our campaign starts in a few days against Middlesbrough and I'll be using my rotation players and young players for the game as I'm going to prioritise the league from now on.

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Key Players

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News

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We signed Elias Abdulla on a free transfer to improve the squad and he's a very capable defensive midfielder. It will also improve our popularity in Bahrain and hopefully bring in some more merchandise sales.​
 
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Season Four

Winter Transfer Window Update

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Transfers

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Another quiet winter transfer window for the club as we only brought in one player and it was a left back to provide competition for Scott Laird as we didn't have any previously. 18 year old Fabio Goncalves joined from Flamengo for £3m and will be one to watch for the future as he has the potential to become one of the best left backs in the world. You can see his attributes below:

Fabio Goncalves

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We also agreed two deals with players to come in to the club in the future when they reach 18 and when their contract expires at their current club. The first is Diego Vittor from Argentinian club Sportivo Belgrano and he will join at the start of the 2018/19 season after he reaches the age of 18. He looks a decent prospect and will be used in the U21s to help him settle in. The second is Aly Abdel Rahman and he will join on a free transfer following the expiration of his contract at Feyenoord. He was a target of mine a few years ago but chose Feyenoord over us.

Diego Vittor

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Aly Abdel Rahman

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We didn't have the best of months as we only won one game in January which was quite disappointing. We're out of the FA Cup as well but we player our young players and it was heading for a replay until Middlesbrough scored a late winner, a screenshot of the game is available below. We have a habit of conceding last minute winners and we did the same in the game against Liverpool, again a screenshot is available below. With us out of the domestic cups it means we can now concentrate on our league so I'm hoping for a strong finish.

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News

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Season Four

Youth Intake

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Not the best youth intake (again!) and it's getting quite frustrating now. I've practically begged the board to improve the youth facilities and they've eventually listened so I'm hoping in the next year or so we'll get a player that can become a decent level Premier League player in the future. The best two players with the highest potential report from my assistant are shown below.

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Once again I went abroad to find some young players that will improve my youth teams and I've found two prospects in Denmark and Brazil. The first is Jesper Gronning from AaB in Denmark and he is a 15 year old centre back that will slot nicely into my U18 side for the next couple of seasons. The second player is Diego Henrique who will join from Fluminese once the transfer window opens. He'll be 18 when he joins so will spend a season with the U21s before being exposed to regular first team football.

Jesper Gronning

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Diego Henrique

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Great story, one of the best I've read, got detail but it's simple at the same time and you're making some strong progress, will be following
 
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Season Four

End of Season Update

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Player Stats

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Player of the Year

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Young Player of the Year

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The team seems to like finishing 4th in their first year back in divisions as it happened in the first season back in the Championship as well! I still can't believe we finished 4th in the Premier League in our first season back but the results in the final third of the campaign were fantastic, especially the final day thrashing of Manchester City which is shown below! The results against Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal were also quite astonishing and it was all down to Ciro Immobile that we finished quite high in the league, like I predicted earlier on in the season. We didn't qualify for the Champions League, despite finishing in 4th, as Tottenham beat Real Madrid in the Champions League final and therefore get automatic qualification into the competition. I think Europe might be a step too far for the club though as I intended on building a good squad before trying to get into a continental competition.

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As discussed in the Winter Transfer Window update, the FA Cup run was cut short due to a last minute winner for Middlesbrough in the Third Round. I fielded a team full of youngsters due to a congestion in league fixtures and it backfired. I'm hoping in the next season that the youngsters will be able to beat smaller teams with ease.

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We met the boards expectation of getting to the Fourth Round of the competition before being beaten by Manchester City. We collapsed after going two goals up and it was disappointing but hopefully the younger players learnt from their mistakes. Next season I'll still use them for the competition.

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U21s

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U18s

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News

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Season Five

Summer Transfer Window Update

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Transfers

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Diego Henrique

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Jesper Gronning

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Aly Abdel Rahman

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Jordan Kean

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Hedwiges Maduro

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Kristiyan Dimov

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David Moreno

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Aivaras Saulenas

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Ben Green

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Andrea Ortelli

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Jan Meszaros

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Ibrahima Sy

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Aske Beck

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Failed Transfer Target

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Had the chance to confirm the signing of him for £4.5m but decided against it last minute!

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As you can see we didn't have the best of starts to the second season of our Premier League adventure and we are rock bottom heading into the international break. There's only been two games played but it's still very disappointing. The defeat against Swansea was very annoying as our new goalkeeper had a nightmare so he was placed in the U21s and former loanee Ibrahima Sy was brought in on a free transfer after his Marseille contract expired.

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News

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Season Five

Mid Season Update

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After an initial bad start, the win against Cardiff gave the team some confidence and we put in some impressive performances after that. Most impressive result during the time period would be the last gasp winner against Manchester City in December as we haven't had the best of luck against them in the past few seasons.

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For the season second in a row Manchester City knocked us out in the Fourth Round of the Capital One Cup. Once again I used the competition to play my younger players whilst City decided to use their first team and, as you can see, the gulf in class showed.

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News

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Season Five

Winter Transfer Window Update

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Transfers

Diego Ardente

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A very quiet transfer window for PNE as we only brought one player in and it was Diego Ardente. The 18 year old centre back is one of the brightest prospects in Argentina and I was delighted to get him for £5.5m at that age as it means he'll be able to be trained at the club for three years and then be classed as a homegrown player.

Future Transfers

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Nzuzi Olivier Yenga will join PNE in the summer after agreeing to join the club for over £10m. I had the option of bringing him in in this transfer window but decided against it as he would get more game time at Anderlecht. Looks a top midfielder already and will have a fantastic career ahead of him.

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News

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Season Five

Youth Intake

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Finally we have a good youth intake! After years of updating the youth facilities, junior coaching and youth recruitment we have a decent player come through the youth setup! The top prospects are shown below but Ashley Green is by far the best player we've had so far come through. I'm hoping he'll go on to become a top midfielder that can be sold for a lot of money.

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I've also agreed deals to bring the following into the youth setup in June once the Summer Transfer Window opens, least I'll have plenty of strikers!

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Just loaded it back up after saving it late last night. 'Save Game Could Not Be Loaded' :S

Luckily my computer backs up as v2 etc and is only a month behind.
 
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