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Harrison Armstrong | CameraSport - Alex Dodd
PNE made their first signing of the January window on Thursday
Preston North End manager Paul Heckingbottom hopes to make another attacking addition to his squad yet.
The Lilywhites, on day 29 of the January transfer window, wrapped up their first signing with Milos Lukovic arriving on a straight loan deal from Strasbourg. The 20-year-old Serbian spent the first half of the season at Las Palmas. He scored four goals in 17 appearances for the Segunda Division outfit.
Earlier this month, Heckingbottom had outlined his hope to sign a midfielder - whether that be Harrison Armstrong returning on loan or not - and two attackers. In Thursday’s pre-match press conference, he explained that was still the case and that a different profile to Lukovic is now the target for Preston.
As for Armstrong - who has started the last four games in all competitions for Everton - the PNE boss is prepared to hold out for a decision from the Toffees. He remained coy on his latest chat with David Moyes but was firm that North End will need to add another body in midfield, if it isn’t to be Armstrong.
“Yeah, we’d be stupid not to,” said Heckingbottom. “We want to come out of this window in the best possible place. We have to attack it and do the best we possibly can. We've got four months left of the season and we've got to do as best as we possibly can and the business we do in the last few days, how hard we work in the last few days... who knows how important it could be in those four months?
“No (to whether there is any news on Armstrong), not other than we'll wait and hopefully get him back, that's it. He's not our player and it is totally down to Everton. I spoke with David again this morning, so I know the lay of the land, exactly where we sit and he knows our thoughts on it. So yeah, that's it.”
On whether there is a point for PNE to move on to an alternative, Heckingbottom told BBC Lancashire: “Yeah, but first of all you need a Plan B. I need things presented to me which give me a decision to make.
“That's one thing we have to do, but because we know what we're getting and we think Harrison was just getting better and better, he knows the club, our expectations, the players, he's good around the place, everything about him fits really well. So yeah, we'll wait as long as we can.”
Heckingbottom on recruitment process
“We try and make the process as easy as possible,” he told BBC Lancashire. “Lots of meetings before January; we want to be ready to go. We tried to move on something really, really quickly, beginning of Jan. That won't happen, so you move on. But then for the last two weeks, it's sort of been going for the same names, same players and hopefully, we get them.
“I think what we all have to do is be really clear what our market is and then try and be as good as we can be in that. Then, you get to a point where, I think, if certain players fit what you're about and everyone's happy, you sort of can't lose out on them. Otherwise, what's the point of having parameters in the first place? You end up looking outside what everyone said and stipulated to start with.”
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