Preston North End tracking Sheffield Wednesday ace ahead of potential transfer | OneFootball

Preston North End’s attempts to strengthen their defence this summer may take them across the Pennines as they’re interested in a move for Sheffield Wednesday youngster Osaze Urhoghide, according to Deepdale Digest and LancsLive.

The 20-year-old has been offered a new deal at Hillsborough but with his current contract expiring in a few weeks it looks increasingly unlikely that the Dutch-born defender will be staying.

Wednesday snapped up Urhoghide in 2019 after he was released by AFC Wimbledon, and he showed enough in his first few months with the under-23’s to earn himself a senior debut in the FA Cup against Brighton in January 2020.

Having not been used by Garry Monk or Tony Pulis in the first half of the 2020-21 campaign, Urhoghide was brought back into the first team by Neil Thompson and played 16 times under his caretaker stewardship and Darren Moore’s management – mainly at centre-back but also at full-back as well.

The youngster played at left-back against North End in January and kept Scott Sinclair very quiet, and that performance may have brought him into the Lilywhites’ sights this summer.

Preston North End quiz: One question about every player in the Lilywhites’ first-team – Can you score 100% on this?

And the Owls will not get much in the way of compensation for Urhoghide wherever he moves – the fact he wasn’t club developed means that they’ll get less than the £300,000 banked from Celtic for Liam Shaw, according to the Sheffield Star.

PNE face a battle for his signature though, with other English interest and suitors from abroad too, with FLW sources revealing earlier this year that Sporting Lisbon and Club Brugge were admirers of the 20-year-old.

The Verdict

With Liam Lindsay already signed and Sepp van den Berg looking likely to return to Deepdale, North End may have a lot of defenders on their books in 2021-22 if they manage to snap Urhoghide up as well.

PNE are definitely in the market for a specialist right-back and that is where Urhoghide featured a few times in the 2019-20 campaign when he debuted for the Owls, but more recently he’s been playing as a centre-back.

Whatever position he’s being targeted for though, Urhoghide would be a piece of smart business for North End, especially as he’d cost less than £300,000 and holds a ton of potential.