Preston North End player’s long stint could be about to end – and Stoke City would be the perfect summer destination: Opinion | OneFootball

The end of an era could be about to occur at Preston North End this summer when the contract of Daniel Johnson expires.

The current longest-serving player at Deepdale having signed for the Lilywhites in January 2015, Johnson’s extension that he penned in January 0f 2021 is on the verge of coming to an end.

North End boss Ryan Lowe has said that no new contract talks with any player will occur until March or April, but it’s increasingly unlikely that the Jamaica international will be offered a new one.

Johnson is widely assumed to be one of North End’s top earners on the playing squad, which will perhaps make the club’s decision to potentially let go of him even easier when he hasn’t been a regular starter this season.

Having come onto the club’s radar in 2014 when he starred for Chesterfield on loan in a 3-3 draw at Deepdale in League One in 2014, Johnson signed permanently for PNE later that season from Aston Villa for just £50,000, and sooner rather than later he became a Championship stalwart after scoring eight goals in his first half-season with North End to win promotion.

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278 Championship appearances and 44 goals later and Johnson looks set to depart Deepdale unless something changes in the next couple of months – in his 20 league outings this season under Lowe he has started just 13 of them and has been decreasing in influence in the middle of the park, although he saved his best showing for the 4-1 win away at Blackburn Rovers in December.

At the age of 30 though, Johnson should really still be playing Championship football and starting games in 2023-24, which begs the question – where should his next destination be?

The initial ideal fit would look to be Stoke City, and that would re-unite him – if he remains in his job of course as football can be very volatile in terms of manager sackings – with Alex Neil.

Neil and Johnson worked together for nearly four years when the former was North End’s boss, and ‘DJ’ arguably showed some of his best form under the Scotsman.

He only provided six goal contributions in the league in his first season working with Neil, but Johnson upped that to 11 the following campaign with six goals and five assists – it was the 2019-20 season in which PNE briefly were at the top of the table for that Johnson was really in-form though, with 12 goals and seven assists to his name.

It hasn’t worked out quite as well for Johnson since, especially since Lowe walked through the door to replace Frankie McAvoy in the dugout in December 2021, and sometimes a player and a club just naturally reach the end of the road with each other.

And with the future of perhaps Stoke’s most creative player in Nick Powell – who has had his fair share of fitness issues over the years – in doubt as his contract is also coming to an end, perhaps Johnson could be a like-for-like replacement whose availability is far more reliable.

Of course, PNE could surprise people and offer Johnson a new deal and he could accept, but with the clock ticking down on that and his status as a starting player diminishing in recent times, it may be best for a change of scenery, and Neil would no doubt love to re-unite with the Jamaican just like he has with Ben Pearson.