Preston North End should use strong Liverpool connection to secure Luke Chambers deal: View | OneFootball

It is set to be a busy few months of comings and goings in the summer transfer window for Preston North End.

The Lilywhites finished 10th in the Championship in 2023/24, and were in the play-off race until they won just one of their final eight league games.

Ryan Lowe has already set about making changes to his squad for the upcoming season, with Ben Woodburn and Greg Cunningham both being released and captain Alan Browne and Lewis Leigh both offered new deals in their published retained list.

Ahead of the summer, North End should look to rekindle the beneficial working relationship they have struck up with Premier League giants Liverpool in recent years.

Boss Lowe supports Liverpool and was born and raised in the city, and PNE have taken young talents such as Calvin Ramsay and Sepp van den Berg on loan from Merseyside in recent years, as well as allowing the Reds to play a pre-season friendly at Deepdale last summer against Darmstadt when Anfield was unusable.

North End should look to the loan market again in this window, this time for 19-year-old Reds starlet Luke Chambers - he hails from Preston, impressed on loan at Wigan Athletic in League One last campaign and should be after a second-tier loan this time around.

Luke Chambers is highly-rated at Liverpool

Chambers joined the Reds academy as a six-year-old and, after working his way through the age-groups, had his first senior involvement with the club when he travelled with the first team squad on their pre-season tour of Asia in 2022, going on to be named on the bench for one Premier League and one EFL Cup game in the first-half of the season.

He joined Kilmarnock on loan in January 2023, registering one assist in 16 games in all competitions as he backed out of a call-up to the U20 World Cup with England, and he became a fan favourite as Killie finished 10th and avoided an immediate drop back down to the Scottish Championship.

Chambers was linked with a shock loan move to eventual Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen last summer, but remained at Liverpool for the first half of the season, then made his senior bow as a substitute in an EFL Cup victory over Leicester City in September and started two UEFA Europa League group games against Toulouse and Union Saint-Gilloise.

He accepted a loan move to Wigan in the January window and immediately became a regular under Shaun Maloney, figuring at both centre-back and left-wing-back as he made 18 appearances in the final 21 games of the League One season and notched three assists and his first professional goal in April against Portsmouth.

His spell at the DW Stadium could not have gone much better and with Liverpool back in the Champions League and new boss Arne Slot possibly less likely to gamble on young players like Chambers, he must surely be in line for a move to the Championship this summer, and PNE should be first in line.

Preston North End and Liverpool relationship could lead to Luke Chambers deal

It is no secret that the two clubs have formed a good working partnership in recent years, which would come in handy if North End wish to chase Chambers this summer.

Sepp van den Berg joined Preston on loan from the Reds in February 2021 and went on to feature 66 times for the club in a successful 18-month spell, while Calvin Ramsay made the same move last summer, but was not as fortunate as he played just twice amid serious knee injury issues.

Liverpool even made North End's Deepdale their temporary home stadium for a pre-season friendly against SV Darmstadt 98 last summer, as work was ongoing at Anfield.

PNE only have four in-contract first team centre-backs and two left-backs heading into the summer - Chambers can play at left centre-back in a back-three, left-back and left-wing-back, so not only fits Lowe's usual 3-5-2 formation, but also provides cover in positions that they definitely need to strengthen.

With everything considered, Chambers' potential signing makes sense on and off the pitch for Preston North End, and he could become a key player for them in the Championship if signed ahead of next season - he looks ready for the next step in his development and it would be good to see another Preston-born talent pull on the Lilywhites shirt.