Preston North End's squad definitely has a different look to it now than it did at the beginning of the season, and the mid-season upheaval is perhaps the main reason for their struggles in this campaign.

North End still had a few long-serving players in their squad back in September when the season started, but when the January transfer window slammed shut, several of those players had departed for pastures new, with Ben Pearson, Ben Davies and Darnell Fisher all leaving.

The continuity of North End's players was probably a big reason for their seventh and ninth-placed finishes in 2018 and 2020, but the high turnover in the middle of this season hasn't helped anyone and it perhaps cost Alex Neil his job last month.

Amid all those new signings though there has been some players who have stayed at Deepdale for a long time - let's look at the top 10 in the current squad that have been around for the longest.

With North End hovering around the play-offs halfway through Alex Neil's first season in charge in 2017/18, the Scotsman decided to bolster his squad with a few players in January, one of them being Billy Bodin.

After scoring nine League One goals in 21 appearances and netting 13 times the season before, Bodin made the step up to the Championship but it's not exactly been a fruitful time for him at Deepdale.

The Welshman has spent large periods of his time at the club injured and because of that he's been restricted to just 33 league appearances in over three years - with his contract expiring this summer you'd imagine he will be departing.

A player who arrived on January 1, 2018 - just a few days before Bodin - was Moult, who had found himself to be very prolific in the Scottish Premiership for Motherwell.

The two clubs had agreed a fee a few weeks before to bring the striker to Lancashire, but his first season-and-a-half at Deepdale was rather unimpressive as he scored just six goals in 34 outings - although his worth ethic could never be questioned.

His time following that though has been ruined thanks to a knee injury suffered against Swansea in August 2019 that kept him out of the game for 18 months - he has been in a few matchday squads recently but hasn't actually played a minute of football since the injury and he could be another long server to depart this summer.

One of Simon Grayson's last pieces of business as PNE manager before heading to Sunderland was to secure a deal for Sean Maguire, who was lighting up the League of Ireland for Cork City at the time and he arrived at Deepdale officially in July 2017.

Having failed to make the grade at West Ham years before, Maguire was a real unknown quantity but his first season was very promising as he banged in 10 goals in 24 games.

Maguire looked to be the pacey striker that North End needed - unfortunately though a hamstring injury that he picked up in the summer of 2018 really ruined that element of his game and since then he's been a shadow of the striker he was.

The Ireland international has scored just 11 times in the last three seasons which is a shame considering how he performed at the start of his stint at PNE.

Rudd spent over a year on loan at Deepdale between 2013 and 2014, and three years later in June 2017 he returned to the Lilywhites on a permanent basis from Norwich City.

He would share the starting jersey with Chris Maxwell in his first season back but he would soon become the undisputed first choice at Deepdale and played all 46 league games in the 2019/20 season.

Rudd though may find himself with a new challenge next season - having been absent since January with a knee injury he's seen Leicester loanee Daniel Iversen come into the fold and play exceptionally well, so if North End get the Dane back for a full season then Rudd may find himself sat on the bench for his fifth season at the club.

There was a bit of a surprise factor into the signing of Barkhuizen, which was officially done on January 1, 2017 but announced months before.

It was seen as a bit of a favour from PNE to help out Morecambe with their financial struggles, but they ended up getting a talented player out of it and Barkhuizen may have even surprised himself with his start at Deepdale.

Just a couple of months into his stint, Barkhuizen was named Championship Player of the Month for March and he had been utilised over the years in all sorts of positions - most recently as a wing-back.

'Barky' has scored 33 goals over the years for North End in the league and PNE fans will be hoping a contract extension is in the offing for a player whose deal runs out next summer.

Hudson is probably a forgotten man at Deepdale, but he officially joined up with the senior squad in July 2016 after starting his professional contract.

He'd made his debut as a 17-year-old for North End though in December 2015 - it came at Elland Road following a sending off for Jordan Pickford and Hudson was then thrown in at the deep end.

To this day that remains his only appearance in any competition for the Lilywhites - he's presumably been kept around for club-trained player purposes but at the age of 22 now, Hudson probably needs to think about departing Deepdale for his own career development.

'Gally' is a real modern-day North End icon, having first played for the club on loan in 2007 and then he returned for a loan spell between October 2013 and the end of the 2014/15 campaign - which ended in promotion to the Championship at Wembley.

That led to a permanent move finally for Gallagher in the summer of 2015, and he has remained at Deepdale ever since and in his advancing years he's been converted into a more deep-lying midfielder.

There's every chance that he may retire at the end of this season and bring his six-year permanent playing stay at the club to an end, but he's become increasingly involved in the coaching side of things this season and he could end up remaining on the touchline under whoever is the next manager of the club.

Johnson could very well be one of the biggest bargains that North End have picked up, having paid Aston Villa £50,000 in January 2015.

The Jamaican boosted PNE's squad mid-season and he may very well have been one of the catalysts to PNE's promotion that season as he scored eight goals on the way to the play-off final in just 20 games.

'DJ' hasn't always fired in the goals at Championship level, but his eight strikes in the 2015/16 campaign and then 12 last season shows that he's still got that eye for goal and why Rangers were so keen on him at the start of this season.

Johnson will be sticking about a while longer as well after penning a new deal at the end of January, proving he's in it for the long haul.

Browne hadn't even made an appearance for Cork City as a youngster but PNE still saw something in him which made them snap him up as he arrived in Lancashire in January 2014.

The Irishman has grown from a boy to a man since moving to England and he was immediately thrust into the senior squad upon his arrival, and in his seven years at the club he's developed into a real fan favourite and is now captain.

Browne had a personal best season in the 2018-19 campaign by scoring 12 goals from midfield and more recently he's been deployed at right-back, but he will probably be in North End's midfield for years to come after signing a new deal in January and when the longest-serving PNE player leaves he will no doubt take his spot at the top.

And that longest-serving player is indeed Paul Huntington, who will reach his testimonial years if he's still at Deepdale in the summer of 2022.

The 'Cumbrian Cannavaro' was one of a number of Graham Westley signings in 2012, but his biggest impact for PNE came in the 2014/15 promotion-winning season - he scored in the play-off final, netted nine times over the course of the season and won the club's Player of the Year award.

In the last few years, Huntington has been called upon a bit less often but he has never let the team down when he has played, and this season in particular he's had long stints in the team especially when Patrick Bauer went down with an injury.

The 33-year-old is contracted until next summer but he'd need one more extension to reach a testimonial - it would be cruel if he weren't to get it as it's what all PNE fans want.