Preston North End should look to re-ignite interest in Barnsley player this summer: View | OneFootball

Following back-to-back Championship wins, Preston North End are in fine recent form and are pushing to get back in the play-off spots.

The Lilywhites started the season in impeccable form, going unbeaten in their first eight games, winning six of those to put them at the top of the standings in the early stages, but then came a run of just four wins in 18 matches that saw them slowly slide out of the top six.

Recently though, they have won three of their last four games and are now within two points of the top six, but PNE manager Ryan Lowe has been under pressure at points this season, and he wasn't allowed to do any January transfer business due to budget constraints.

One position that could have been a necessity to strengthen was at right wing-back, where Brad Potts has been left on his own thanks to the recall of Calvin Ramsay by Liverpool, with the Scot having an injury-hit stint at Deepdale in the first half of the season.

North End will go with just Potts as the only natural senior player in the position for the second half of the current campaign, but a player Lowe could look to sign in the summer to help solve that issue is Jordan Williams.

Who is Jordan Williams?

Williams is naturally a right-back, but can also play further up at wing-back, and can also play on the right of a back three - where he has played most of his football in the 2023-24 season for Barnsley.

The 24-year-old came through at Huddersfield Town's academy, joining the club at the age of nine and worked his way up through their system, going on to make his debut for the Terriers in August 2017.

Williams ended up spending half of the 2017-18 season on loan at Bury, where made nine appearances in League One in his first loan move away before being recalled after a lack of regular pportunities.

Whilst he may not have played a lot of games at senior level, then-Barnsley manager Daniel Stendel saw enough to bring him to Oakwell for an undisclosed fee in August 2018.

After making just 15 appearances in all competitions in his first season, Williams has since gone on to become a regular, making at least 20 league appearances every campaign since.

Preston have previously been linked with signing Williams, with Alan Nixon claiming that they were interested in signing him back in January 2023, and the Lilywhites would be wise to re-ignite their interest in him in the summer.

Williams could provide Brad Potts with much needed competition in the right wing-back role in Lowe’s favoured 3-5-2 system, and with PNE's number 44 hobbling off at the weekend against Cardiff City, it shows that maybe a new player in that position was needed after all.

Williams excelled playing in the wing-back position under Michael Duff last season, ending the season with five goals and seven assists in League One

He also contributed defensively in this more attacking position, winning 51 tackles and making 51 interceptions last season, putting him in the top 8% and top 4% for those respective stats.

An added bonus is that Williams this season has been playing on the right of a back three under Neill Collins, and has been brilliant, despite playing a more defensive role - this shows his versatility that he could provide for Preston with the way they currently play as a back-up to Jordan Storey too.

He still ranks highly for chance creation amongst centre-backs in League One, despite having to adapt to a different role - Williams has so far completed 1,341 successful passes and 129 accurate long balls, putting him in the top 6% of players in his current position the third tier.

PNE do not have a clear backup for Potts in his position, and so they could do with signing one in the summer.

Williams’ contract is also set to expire in June too, so would be available on a free transfer as it stands.

Lowe - who knows all about Williams having been a player-coach at Bury at the same time as he was there in 2017 - would be stupid not to look at the versatile defender once again, and he could prove to be a shrewd acquisition on a free transfer.