"A shame" - Preston North End regret over "absolute bargain" transfer they missed out on to Hull City | OneFootball

FLW's Preston fan pundit expressed regret at the club's failure to make Liam Millar's loan move permanent

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Preston North End's failure to secure the services of Liam Millar after his loan spell ended in the summer has been highlighted as a particular failure by the Deepdale hierarchy.

North End could certainly have done with their former loan star this season as they languish dangerously close to the relegation zone, with only goal difference keeping them out of the bottom three during the international break.

It's been something of a turbulent time for Preston, who saw Ryan Lowe depart after just one game of the season, and while Paul Heckingbottom has come in to steady the ship, they're yet to find a level of consistency.

Preston can look back on the start of the season, and even over the summer, with many regrets about what they could have done differently both with their manager and in the transfer market, but their biggest regret could be failing to tie down Millar after his loan spell ended.

Preston should've signed the loanee "everyone loved"

Millar was adored at Deepdale

We asked our Preston fan pundit Darren Watson if he could identify any transfer regrets his club should have, and although hesitant to dwell too much on the past, he was quick to point out that he believes his club should've made a bigger play to sign Millar.

Speaking to FLW, he said: "Hull have got an absolute bargain there, just over £1m for the lad. An absolute bargain, he was a really, really good player.

"Obviously, he's got the injury now that will keep him out for the rest of the season, which is really really unfortunate and I hope he has a speedy recovery.

"Everybody loved Liam Millar, at North End, he just put in a shift everywhere he played on the pitch.

"It's just a shame that with the manager we had at the time, he didn't get him in the position he wanted to play, so it was really unfortunate we couldn't see that.

"We've had some fantastic loan players in the past, and I really wish we'd gone on and actually put a bid in for them when the season's ended."

Hull swooped in the summer to sign Millar

Hull beat off stiff competition from some big-hitting Championship rivals to sign Millar in the summer, with it initially reported that Basel were looking for a fee in the region of £2.1m for the former Liverpool man.

The Tigers are believed to have paid around 30% less than that quoted figure, which Preston fans will acknowledge represents good business, but unfortunately for Hull, Millar has got an ACL injury which will now keep him out for the season.

Millar made a respectable start to the campaign with a goal and two assists in his first 11 league matches for Hull, but his form for North End last season was arguably even better.

The Liverpool academy graduate clocked up 10 goal involvements in 35 league games for Preston last season, which is made all the more impressive by the fact that our Preston fan pundit says he wasn't even playing in his strongest position.