Preston North End boss not entertaining talks of new contracts until after Christmas

There was a lot of turnover at Preston this summer as 13 players who had either made a first team appearance or been signed for the first team were allowed to leave for nothing, with a couple more young players on the fringes released too.

There is currently a host of first team players with less than 12 months on their current deal, such as Daniel Johnson, Ryan Ledson, Liam Lindsay, Greg Cunningham, Ched Evans, Matthew Olosunde and Sean Maguire. Robbie Brady and Ben Woodburn signed 12 month deals this summer, the latter with on option of a second.

Johnson, Lindsay and Ledson in particular are key players at Deepale – Lindsay nominated for the player of the month award for August in the Championship, Johnson and Ledson both previously winning the player of the year award.

But for now, there will be no contract talk from the PNE boss, instead it’s all about winning games.

He said: “Not a chance, it's September, we're what, two months in? I'll speak about contracts at the right time and that will probably be after Christmas or January time.

“They're contracted to the football club until the end of the year. That's not my focus at the moment. My focus is for this football club to win as many games as we can and see where it takes us.

"Conversations like that I don't really entertain until after Christmas, then if I feel it's the right time to speak to the players that are out of contract about them either getting a new contract or moving on, I try and leave it as late as I possibly can.”

North End have encountered problems this summer in offloading their players due top the length and wealth in their contracts.

Tom Bayliss and Josh Harrop both had 12 months left on their deals with the latter the most difficult to sort an exit with. Josh Earl was in a similar situation, though an agreement with the academy graduate seemed to happen more swiftly, as a move to Fleetwood Town was on the cards.

Lowe does not want to be handing out contracts that could end up tying the club down too soon.

He said: “I know now some clubs sign players when they have 18 months left on their deal, I used to have to wait until the last day of the season to see if I had a contract or not.

"It made me hungrier and made me work hard for what I wanted. I've got a hungry group of players and I want them to be hungry and to earn contracts.

"Gone are the days where this club gives contracts out for the sake of it, it's not going to happen.

"We'll give contracts out for players who warrant contracts and perform on a weekly basis and a daily basis to get us where we want to get to.

"The lads that are all contracted to the end of the season have until the end of the season and when the time is right to speak to them I will. The time is not right any time soon.”