"Put the money in Heckingbottom's pocket" - Preston North End plea directed at Hemmings and Ridsdale | OneFootball

Football League World's Preston Fan Pundit has spoken about the one message he would send to the club's board.

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 have come back from a very disappointing start to the season to push themselves into having an outside chance of finishing in the play-off places.

The gap between themselves and the top six has fluctuated in recent weeks, but they are still mathematically in contention. Nevertheless, at this moment in time, it looks as though the Lilywhites are set for another mid-table finish in the Championship.

The club have made a home for themselves in the middle of the pack, having finished no higher than seventh and no lower than 14th since winning promotion from League One to the second tier in 2015.

But there is a great desire for Preston to take that next step and become a team that is consistently challenging at the upper end of the Championship, with this upcoming summer transfer window a vital one.

Preston's owners urged to make the push for the Premier League soon

Craig Hemmings is the current chairman of the Lilywhites, with Peter Ridsdale a director at the club, and there is a strong belief from the fanbase that more needs to be done to take the Lancashire outfit to the next level.

Maintaining their position as a Championship club is vital, but with former League One rivals now Premier League regulars, there are questions as to why they have never been able to join them in the top flight.

Football League World has asked their Preston Fan Pundit, Darren Watson, what one message he would send to those at the very top of the club.

He told FLW: "If I could send one message to the club at this present moment, it would be squad rebuild. The reason why I say this as well is that the summer is going to be a very, very critical time for the club.

"We’ve got lots of players returning to the parent clubs after their loans, we’ve got players who are at the end of their contracts. I believe that we do need to actually build a young, hungry Preston squad that can fight for promotion in this league.

"The Championship is one of the hardest leagues in the world, and it’s one of the most exciting and I do believe that if we don’t build a squad that's going to be fighting for promotion, we're just going to be this Preston side who are happy with Championship football for the rest of my life as a Preston fan.

"I don’t want that, I want to see our team in the Premier League. A lot of our fans do, even if that's just one season, just to say we've been there. But we've got to fight for this, we want to build a squad, we want to get up there into the top half of the table at least and put a challenge in, even if it's the play-offs, and we don’t go up.

"That way, we can say that this team's actually improving, and we go again, but it’s the same every season. We finish mid-table, there’s no life, no desire to even go. You know, we need to put the money in Paul Heckingbottom’s pocket to get the players that he needs."

Darren continued: "He's proven he can get there. He got Sheffield United to the FA Cup semi-final and, obviously, we’re in the fifth round of the FA Cup this weekend. We could be heading that way too and hopefully we do.

"But he took a team to the Premier League as well. We've got this manager in on the basis that he can take teams to the top flight with the right backing and the right funding. Obviously, we've got the backing, but the funding is not there because we know what Preston's budget's like, and it's not exactly the same as Sheffield United’s.

"So, we need to look for these players that are going to come in, and they're going to go and do the job to actually get us up the Championship and this is something that is very critical to this team. Very critical."

Preston have to be careful with Premier League ambitions

Although getting to the promised land is the dream of everyone in football, clubs have to be careful in trying to make that push as you can land yourself in a huge amount of trouble if attempts fail.

Derby County are a recent example of this, with Mel Morris' spending throughout 2014-2021 eventually landing the club in great financial difficulty that saw the Rams enter administration and suffer relegation to League One.

They are still recovering from the 2021/22 campaign, and therefore, any push must be made sensibly with the correct plans in place if promotion is not won.

While it may not be the best situation to be in, Preston are showing positive signs under Heckingbottom and they will progress with him in charge of the club. However, this may take longer than some will hope for, with sustainability the key to staying in the Championship.