Wigan Athletic unimpressed after repeated PNE raids this summer

Wigan Athletic are thought to be rather unhappy with Preston North End’s repeated raids on them this summer.

The Latics have been through plenty of late having been relegated and hit with a points deduction.

Wigan are preparing for life back in League One and Shaun Maloney needs a fast start to claw back those eight lost points

PNE aren’t exactly helping the Wigan cause right now having raided them four times this summer.

Striker Will Keane traded Wigan for North End in July, returning to Deepdale on a two-year contract.

PNE then landed Wigan development coach Peter Murphy, who is taking a key role in helping North End’s youngsters around the first-team setup.

Another Wigan coach headed to Deepdale this summer as Rob Kelly reunited with Ryan Lowe having worked together at Bury.

North End made it four on Wednesday as defender Jack Whatmough joined North End just days after terminating his Wigan contract.

The repeated late payment of wages last season meant Whatmough was allowed to rip up his contract, and he has already joined North End.

Whatmough’s move hasn’t gone down too well with Wigan fans and it seems the frustration is matched inside the DW Stadium.

Wigan Today reporter Paul Kendrick has highlighted on Twitter that PNE’s moves this summer have ‘not gone down well’ inside the club.

North End snapping up the Euxton training ground is highlighted too, with PNE repeatedly raiding Wigan for players, staff and even facilities in recent times.

We can hardly blame Wigan for being a little frustrated at losing so many people to North End; it may not be a fierce derby but there is still some level of rivalry there.

PNE have been opportunistic and all of these moves make perfect sense for Lowe, either landing key coaches or solid Championship players at knockdown prices.

Maybe this situation will only ramp up the rivalry between the clubs but if PNE need a favour from Wigan any time soon, there may be a fairly blunt answer.

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Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe hopes to have his summer transfer business wrapped up well before deadline day.

The Lilywhites had to be busy this summer and they have been, bringing in six new faces after seeing four loan players return to their parent clubs – while Daniel Johnson and Josh Onomah left from last season’s squad. Calvin Ramsay has arrived on loan while North End have bought Layton Stewart, Mads Frokjaer, Will Keane, Duane Holmes and Jack Whatmough.

North End are still targeting a left wing-back, after missing out on a couple of targets in Yasser Larouci and Josh Wilson-Esbrand. And it is no secret that PNE want Tom Cannon to return on loan from Everton, to give the front line a final boost. Lowe is content with the work done to date but certainly doesn’t want to be rushing around in four weeks’ time.

“As long as we do our work, I am quite confident and the recruitment we’ve done since I’ve been here, I’d go as far to say it has been excellent,” said Lowe. “We’ve had to wait patiently and got the right players in. We haven’t just signed anyone and I am pleased with where we are so far. One or two more might potentially still move out which is fine, it’s not a personal thing.

“But for us to freshen it up and get what we want in, it’s been good and long may that continue. We’d like to get our business done earlier than before the end of the month. What I don’t want to do and haven’t done since I’ve been here is panic at the 12th hour – because there is no point then. It means you haven’t done your business cleverly. We are not going to do that, unless it was something that really popped up and we couldn’t turn it down.

“Not many of them happen; the players we want are already targeted and we will continue to follow that same theme. So, hopefully in the next few weeks, before the window shuts, we can have our squad together – so we know what we’ve got and we aren’t waiting until the last day. It gets a bit messy so we don’t want to get into that position. We just have to wait and see what happens over the next few weeks in terms of adding two more players.”