Preston North End had a solid season under the management of Ryan Lowe finishing the year sat 13th in the league. 

However, Lowe will now be hoping to make some good additions to his squad the summer and build a squad that is able to compete further up the table next season.

The manager joined Preston in December so this summer will be his first in charge of the club giving him a chance to put his own mark on the club.

Former Preston captain Graham Alexander has spoken about the struggle of joining a club halfway through a season having had the experience of joining Motherwell in December 2020, telling the Lancashire Post: "You can't pick and choose when you're going to go into a club.

"I had it when we went into Motherwell in January and you've just got to focus on getting the best out of players right from the off.

"That's the challenge you often have as a manager, it's not always the ideal scenario where you've got a 6-8 week lead up to a season, sometimes you're just thrown in at the deep end and you have to win games."

Furthermore, he has stressed the importance of having a full pre-season as he said: "Every manager will tell you that pre-season is so important, it's not season defining because there are lots of things happening but, without a shadow of a doubt, a broken pre-season can make it a struggle, especially for players who need to get up and running to find that consistency.

"Pre-season is really important for a manager to get his ideas across, to make sure players are as fit as they possibly can be and be resilient for what's ahead. They've got to prepare their bodies to play 40/50 games and you can only do that by having that consistency in your preparation.

"It's a really important time, pre-season friendlies are important to get players building up to the right level  at the right time. Sometimes you can have the best or worst pre-season, however, and when the first game comes it's a completely different scenario."

The Verdict:

It's interesting to get an insight from someone that has experienced coming in as a manager halfway through a season, and it can't be easy to do so with a limited time to put your mark on the side.

Ryan Lowe did a good job but will be hoping to have more of an impact on the side next season and make it reflect his aims more.

Not only will he have that time to recruit but also with the pre-season games, he will be able to send his message to his players and help them gel in time for the new season.