Preston North End backed to re-sign Alan Browne | OneFootball

Preston North End have been urged to try and re-sign former captain Alan Browne this summer.

Preston North End endured a miserable second-half to last season and their recruitment this summer will be about filling out the squad to try and launch a sustained promotion challenge next season.

Having found themselves in the hunt for the top two and the automatic promotion spots in the Championship in early-January, Paul Heckingbottom’s Preston faded away significantly from the top end of the table in the second-half of the campaign.

They managed just four victories in their final 20 games of last season after reaching a height fourth past the half-way stage of the season.

That undermined an impressive campaign and did repeat a pattern from the previous campaign in which they got dragged into a relegation battle after being comfortably safe in the spring, only surviving on the final day of the season after failing to win any of their final eight games, managing just one win in their final 15.

Depth will be required for Preston to sustain themselves better this time around and they have been urged to try and bring back a former fan favourite and captain in Alan Browne this summer.

Preston urged to try and re-sign Alan Browne

Alan Browne left Preston in the summer of 2024 and helped Sunderland achieve promotion back to the Premier League campaign in his debut season at the Stadium of Light.

He was then loaned out to Middlesbrough and again contributed well, starting in the play-off final as ‘Boro were narrowly beaten by Hull City at Wembley Stadium.

With a year left on his contract, he is now expected to depart Wearside on a permanent basis and FLW’s Preston Fan Pundit Darren Watson believes Browne would be a good signing for the Lancastrians once again.

Darren says: “Personally, for me, I would look to try and bring back Alan Browne.

“Obviously, still a Preston favourite. A former captain, he knows what the responsibility that it is to be the Preston North End captain.

“I also think that the experience with a promotion under his belt, as well as a play-off final in the season just gone, he’s a brilliant player and that is why he is wanted by quite a few clubs who are looking out for his services as well.

“I personally think that he’s a brilliant player, I have always liked Alan Browne.

“His style of play obviously suits us perfectly and he only left because of a fall out with former manager Ryan Lowe as well. I do think he would have stayed at the club but obviously his dream was to play in the Premier League and get promoted with a side.

“Unfortunately at the time, Preston couldn’t provide that.

“I wish him all the best if he doesn’t decide to come back to North End, if North End are actually in the race for him.

“I wish him all the best wherever he goes. I’ve always appreciated Alan Browne for everything he did for Preston North End and whatever club he goes to next, he is going to do really, really well for them.”

Alan Browne would be a coup for Preston

Having come through the academy at hometown club Cork City in Ireland, Browne joined Preston in 2014 at the age of just 19 and went on to establish himself as a key man for The Lilywhites.

Browne spent ten seasons at Deepdale and over 400 appearances for the club as he established himself as their key man and skipper in the Championship, having initially joined when the club was in League One.

Preston do have plenty of options in the middle of the park with current captain Ben Whiteman alongside Ali McCann, Jordan Thompson, Theo Carroll, Andrew Moran and Brad Potts, as well as trying to re-sign Alfie Devine.

However, the versatility and industry of Browne would be a coup for most teams in the Championship and Preston are no exception to that.

As well as that, that lack of form at the back end of both seasons under the management of Heckingbottom would surely be helped by a bolstered squad – and Browne, who is adept in the system and style that Heckingbottom has implemented at Deepdale with a need for hard-working, all-action midfielders, would be an ideal signing if they can lure him back to Preston.