Exclusive: Sky Sports pundit issues "stale" Preston North End claim as Ryan Ledson exit confirmed | OneFootball

Lee Hendrie has backed Paul Heckingbottom to bring in younger players to Deepdale, with Ledson one of the first casualties ahead of the summer

There could be big changes afoot at Preston North End this summer, with many long-serving players set to exit Deepdale.

Having finished in the middle of the Championship pack for a number of years now, the Lilywhites ended up in a relegation battle on the final day of 2024-25, having sleptwalk into the troubled clubs in the last few weeks with just one win in their previous 14 league matches before heading to Bristol City last weekend.

As it happened, a 2-2 draw was enough to keep PNE in the division for an 11th-straight campaign, but the freshening up of the squad will likely start sooner rather than later, with players out of contract such as Freddie Woodman, Emil Riis and Patrick Bauer, who have been at the club for three years, five years and six years respectively.

One player who has already been confirmed as exiting though is Ryan Ledson, who trumped any other player at PNE this season by completing his seventh campaign after his 2018 move from Oxford United.

Lee Hendrie believes Preston North End need a younger, fresher squad amid Ryan Ledson departure

Ledson was a fresh-faced 20-year-old when arriving at North End back in 2018, with Alex Neil landing the ex-Everton man's services from Oxford United.

In his third season with PNE, Ledson won the club's Player of the Year award in what was on the whole an underwhelming campaign, but instead of kicking on going forward, he never quite hit the heights that were expected.

Over the next four Championship campaigns, Ledson started just 61 times (an average of 15 times a season), and reports started to emerge some weeks ago that he would be leaving Deepdale, with that officially being confirmed this past week following a tear-filled farewell at Ashton Gate.

And speaking exclusively to Football League World, Sky Sports pundit and ex-Premier League midfielder Lee Hendrie believes that it's necessary for the 27-year-old to move on from Paul Heckingbottom's side, with the amount of long-serving players at the club currently meaning things have perhaps gone a bit stale on the pitch.

"Ryan Ledson leaving the football club - he has had a big stint there and I think he will be missed for sure," Hendrie told FLW.

"I think Preston are again a side that have been just stuck in the middle for quite some time. They got close at times under Ryan Lowe and they fell away, and they seemed to be a team that just do enough and will always be around mid-table.

"I'm sure Heckingbottom will want to take them a little bit further this time around - obviously they've ended up being in a relegation fight towards the end of the season, and that's not where you see Preston.

"They've really declined, and I think they have to bring younger, fresher blood into the club that's going to give them some new ideas, and I think that's maybe why Ledson has left the football club.

"I think they're looking elsewhere and looking at the dynamics of what they can do.

"Look, he's been a fantastic servant to the football club and he'll be missed, but I think that's where it might be looked at - there's lots of clubs that feel like they're getting stale in the way that the players have been there for so long, that they may need to freshen things up."

Preston North End need a big shake-up this summer in order to return to middle of Championship pack

North End didn't have the ideal start to 2024-25 at all with Ryan Lowe's untimely resignation after just one match, so it was left to Heckingbottom to pick up the pieces and guide the now Wigan Athletic boss' squad through the rest of the campaign.

The Yorkshireman perhaps quite didn't expect as many bumps in the road that he experienced, and the terrible end of season run of form made it very uncomfortable for everyone involved, but it's important to stress that it's not Heckingbottom's squad, and that he should be fully judged when he's got his own players in.

With the amount of loanees returning to parent clubs and players out of contract, Heckingbottom should get that chance, and it's clear for most to see that PNE need to go in a younger direction if they can - that of course though requires extra investment that may not be forthcoming.

Hendrie has a point on North End becoming somewhat stale in their ways, and the decisions to offer Jordan Storey, Liam Lindsay and Andrew Hughes new contracts midway through the season really do back his case up, but there now needs to be a balance struck between the remaining players at Deepdale and new blood, which could potentially see natural order restored next season, which is the club back in the middle reaches of the standings.