Medical underway as Preston beat Celtic to £6m Spurs transfer | OneFootball

It looks as though the Lilywhites are set to smash their transfer record for a star loanee

Preston North End have had an inauspiciously quiet start to their summer transfer window, with the main talking point being whether or not Alfie Devine was going to sign for the club on a permanent basis.

PNE are a club that has very much relied on loan players to produce quality in recent years, with the likes of Alvaro Carreras, Tom Cannon, Cameron Archer, Lewis Dobbin and, when looking even further back to 2015, Jordan Pickford spent time at Deepdale playing for the Lilywhites before going on to bigger and better things.

A lack of real finances at the Lancashire outfit though has stopped many managers short in investing in the playing squad on a permanent basis - PNE have been a stable Championship club for 11 years in a row now, and it's common knowledge that they are available to be bought from the Hemmings Family for the right price, with a view to pushing them onwards with more investment.

Takeover talk based around Saudi-American businessman Amr Zedan has rumbled on, with the last update from late May from Alan Nixon claiming that his bid for the club was still progressing, and his potential purchase of North End is perhaps the only way that the club could afford the £4.5 million rising to £6 million permanent option to sign Tottenham midfielder Devine.

Alfie Devine transfer twist emerges as Preston North End secure deal

Action Images

And whilst PNE triggered their option well in advance of the late June deadline to get it done, other clubs circling for the 21-year-old looked as though a club-record deal was dead in the water.

Interest has been swirling elsewhere for Devine, with Celtic, Southampton and Wolves all keen on a deal for the England youth international, who scored eight Championship goals and also notched six assists for PNE in the 2025-26 season.

But it looks as though PNE have pulled a deal out of the bag in a major curveball, with Spurs reporter Alasdair Gold revealing that a medical is underway to take the playmaker to Deepdale on a permanent basis, and the aforementioned Nixon has added that the deal will be worth a total of £6 million if all add-ons are met.

It is set to bring an end to a saga that has lasted nearly two months now since the end of the season, and with the current club record transfer being Callum Lang for a fee in excess of £2 million, they are set to shatter that and then some.

A new era is set to arrive at Preston North End with Alfie Devine deal

Preston North End fans have had to be patient over the years when it comes to investment on the playing squad, but it looks like it's finally set to arrive.

Talk of Zedan's proposed takeover have been quiet in recent weeks, but sealing a deal for Devine is the biggest sign yet that the engineering mogul - who also has interests in horse racing and equestrian - is closing in on a purchase of PNE.

Under the Hemmings Family, whilst all the bills have been paid as the club continue to lose a decent amount of money every year, there has been no lavish spending compared to other clubs, yet North End have continued to be in the middle of the Championship road.

The Devine transfer though could be the start of something a lot different at Deepdale going forward, and it has to be described as a major coup.