Opinion: Preston North End attempting to sign Huddersfield Town man this summer would be a step in the wrong direction | OneFootball

Preston North End went into the January transfer window with some positions they needed to strengthen, and they mostly got all of the deals they needed to over the line.

Their strike-force was bolstered with loan deals secured for Everton’s Tom Cannon and Manchester City forward Liam Delap, whilst midfielder Josh Onomah was brought in on deadline day following his contract being cancelled by Fulham.

No right wing-back arrived at Deepdale though – Ryan Lowe was adamant that he had enough in that position with Brad Potts and Alan Browne competing against each other, although the pursuit of Leeds United’s Cody Drameh perhaps told us otherwise.

In terms of the arrival of Onomah, Lowe suggested ahead of the transfer window opening that his squad lacked some creativity in the middle of the park, hence why the 25-year-old was brought in on a free transfer.

What wasn’t apparent though was that Lowe had another target lined up seemingly before he was able to land the ex-Tottenham Hotspur man, and that was Huddersfield Town’s Duane Holmes.

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According to Alan Nixon, the Lilywhites made a move for the USA-born midfielder last month, but were unsuccessful in their attempts to prize the 28-year-old away from the Terriers.

Holmes however reportedly remains on the club’s radar ahead of the summer transfer window, in which he will still be under contract to the Yorkshire outfit, who have the option to extend his deal until 2025 as well if they wish.

On one hand, there is some sense to PNE’s pursuit of Holmes – he is a midfielder first-and-foremost with a lot of his appearances coming in the number 10 role, although over the years he has figured as a winger as well.

That’s where the positives tend to end though for this deal, as there are a lot more drawbacks.

Firstly, Holmes will be 29 years of age by the end of the season, and whilst experience sometimes isn’t a bad thing, for a club that apparently has Premier League aspirations they will likely not get there if they are trying to sign an attacking midfielder at that age with just 29 goals in his senior career.

At Championship level, Holmes has never scored more than five goals across a season for either Huddersfield or Derby County, and his highest number of assists is three, so he’s clearly not the player that Ryan Lowe needs to unlock a defence.

Holmes is also not exactly pulling up any trees this season in a struggling Huddersfield side who are one of the favourites for the drop to League One, so it can’t really be his 2022-23 performances that has attracted Lowe to his services.

There is one link between Holmes and Lowe though – they briefly were team-mates at Bury during the 2014-15 season, so perhaps that is a reason why he has emerged on his radar last month and has stayed on it for the 2023-24 season.

This season has seen a real focus on short-termism though when it comes to North End’s squad – they have five loanees on the books and a number of players on one-year deals, leaving just 14 senior players on the books as of now for next season.

North End need to start building for the future again and devise a strategy where they can land young, hungry players, much in the mould of the likes of Callum Robinson and Ben Pearson that they landed on the cheap in 2016 and not have to rely on seasoned professionals like Holmes who won’t really offer much different to what they already have.