How Portsmouth helped Preston North End swerve transfer disaster on Monday | OneFootball

Preston North End left it late in the January window to make new signings, but struck gold on deadline day with this poach from a Championship rivals

Preston North End left it very late in the January window to make any significant transfer moves, having only signed one loan player before deadline day.

Having undergone a three-game goalless streak that saw them record no points and drop from the top six down to ninth in the Championship table, fans were crying out for Paul Heckingbottom to add some new blood to the forward line at Deepdale before February.

The Lilywhites secured the loan signing of promising youngster Milos Lukovic on a six-month loan from Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, which looked like a temporary solution to their striking woes. They followed that news up with a much better performance than they’d managed in weeks prior in a 1-1 away draw with promotion-hunting Ipswich Town.

Then, on deadline day, many fans got their wish, as the club announced the arrival of a new permanent forward to the club’s ranks – one who PNE had been keen to put pen to paper with all the way back in the summer window, and one who has proven he knows where the net is in the Championship.

Preston North End sign Callum Lang from Portsmouth for a club record fee

Despite welcoming 12 new faces to Deepdale in the summer, the consensus among fans was that Preston didn’t have enough depth in their forward line during the first half of the season.

The players PNE did have on their books went on to suffer setbacks via injuries and suspensions, to the point where the only player in the club’s attack to have been available for every league game this season has been 34-year-old summer freebie Michael Smith, who has scored just three times in 28 league games since the start of the campaign.

One player who Preston hoped to add to their collection of summer imports was Callum Lang. The 27-year-old was the spearhead of Portsmouth’s attack in the second half of the season in 2023/24, when they won the League One title.

He averaged a goal every three league games, and over 0.5 goals per 90 minutes played during those six months, per his FBref profile, and near enough kept that record going in his first full season in the second tier, scoring 10 in 32 to help Pompey to a 16th-placed finish.

It was exclusively reported by FLW that Preston had a £2m offer for Lang rejected in the summer, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred the Lilywhites in their efforts to bring Lang back to the North West.

Indeed, with hours to spare in the January window, PNE’s consistent pursuit of the Wigan Athletic academy graduate has finally yielded fruit, with him signing on at Deepdale for an undisclosed fee.

Whilst the exact figure remains unknown at this stage, the club themselves have reported that this is a record signing, usurping the £2.1m spent to secure the services of Milutin Osmajic in 2023.

Lang will be ready for Preston debut this weekend – against Portsmouth

Speaking on Lang’s signing, Heckingbottom reiterated to the club website how pleased he was to finalise this move before the window slammed shut: “I’m delighted. It's been a tough one to get over the line and get done. We've worked really hard to get the deal done, so delighted we could get it over the line in the end.”

He went on to sing the praises of his new number 10: “He brings Championship experience; he’s scored goals wherever he's been. He is a versatile attacking player, but we're really clear about how we want to use him. Getting him in the box, being really aggressive to attack the ball and being really aggressive out of possession as well.”

The man himself said of his arrival in PR1: “I'm excited about what the club's trying to do here, and I think I can really help on the pitch also. I know what I can do at this level, and I'm really excited to do so and show the fans what I can bring as a player.”

With any luck, fans will not have to wait very long to watch the Liverpudlian put his money where his mouth is. Will Keane departed earlier in January for Reading, Osmajic is still suspended, and new loanee Lukovic is still acclimatising to England.

As a result, Lang will likely jump right into the starting XI this weekend ahead of Smith or Daniel Jebbison, as Preston ironically host his former employers, Portsmouth.

Former Preston player and current Pompey gaffer John Mousinho told The News on Saturday that Lang had “trained all week so no problems there”, and had been excluded from the 3-0 home victory against West Bromwich Albion “purely on football merit”.

After 12 months blighted by injuries on the South Coast, it will be music to Preston fans' ears that their new arrival has been consistently training despite an expected four-to-six week lay-off due to a hamstring injury, as reported on January 10th by Pompey News on social media.

Given that Preston have scored just once in their last four games, his impact will be well anticipated.

If he keeps fit, Lang can reignite Preston’s fading promotion hopes

Despite being inside the play-off places after 19 out of 30 games played in the Championship this season, Preston’s winless run in their last four matches has seen them fall out of a favourable position in the promotion battle.

Currently ninth in the table, they are just three points behind the team currently in the lowest-ranked play-off spot, Wrexham. However, they are also just two points above Birmingham City, who are currently sitting below the halfway mark in the table.

They have also found goals relatively hard to come by this season. In the division right now, six of the eight teams directly below North End, all the way down to and including Leicester City in 17th, have managed more goals than Heckingbottom’s side.

With a course-correction in their next few games, starting with this weekend’s battle against 20th-placed Pompey, they can get the fans back on board with their top six ambitions, and Lang could be a key part of that.

Despite missing much of this season through injury, he has still managed two goals from eight games for a team currently one point above the relegation zone.

His abilities in front of goal are undeniable, and a player with those qualities could be exactly what Preston North End were hoping for, not just to save their January transfer window, but potentially to save their season.