Paul Heckingbottom pleas to Preston fans with a huge summer ahead of what he says will be the toughest Championship season yet.
The Preston manager anticipates a challenging upcoming season in the second tier, which he believes will be the toughest yet due to the financial strength of relegated teams with parachute payments and promoted teams from League One.
He emphasises the importance of a successful summer transfer window, acknowledging the club’s limited budget but expressing confidence in the support from the club’s leadership to maximise their resources.
Heckingbottom highlights the need for fan support and improved home atmosphere to make Preston a formidable opponent.
He notes the team’s potential, pointing out their competitiveness this season, but stresses the need to convert draws into wins and learn to “win ugly” to climb the league standings.
Despite financial constraints and a mid-table budget, he remains focused on addressing clear areas for improvement, such as taking chances and defending better, to achieve better results.
He said, per BBC Sport Lancashire: “Players out contract, a lot of lone players. It’s gonna be a big summer, huge summer, huge summer.
“I think this league next season is gonna be the toughest it’s been.
“The money and it’s gonna be frightening with the teams who’ve come down again who are big and got parachute payments.
“The teams who are coming up probably got the most money, coming up out of League One as well.
“So, it’s gonna be such a strong, strong league for for lots of different reasons.
“So probably how well we do will be determined on how well we perform in the market this summer.”
Interviewer: “Are you gonna have the support and the funding to do as much as you wanna do? You’ve seen everything now…”
Heckingbottom: You never have that as a manager. You never. The money the money’s the money. Like, do you know what I mean? It’s it is what it is.
“But they’re backing to do the most with that money. Yeah. Definitely. 100%.
“Like I said, we’ve already been speaking about it, doing things, Craig and Pete, you know, but all the planning, it means it’s nothing unless we we get the job done on the pitch, which you’ve which you’ve done now. So we can, yeah, the work starts now.”
Interviewer: “Do you think that this result and the and the elation afterwards for the travelling fans, for the staff, the the players and everybody at the club, Do you think that that that shouldn’t really mask the problems underneath that, should it, should it?
Heckingbottom: No. But it’s probably… listen, I can’t… when I came in, I said there’s a negativity about the place and I think that’s weird a little bit because we’ve been dragged into it.
“And I’ve said before sticking up for Craig and and and the Hemings family, if there’s some fans out there who want who want to be losing millions of pounds every year, they’re not mean they can they could take over and do it.
“I don’t know if I would be willing to do it.
“Like, will my team Barnsley, win the EuroMillions? Would I be willing to throw £12,000,000 of my family’s money away every year? I’m not so sure I would.
“And then Pete has been on a, you know, a bottom three, four budget, whatever it is.
“And, running the club, keeping the overheads down. So you’re never gonna always keep outperforming that unless you’re really, really good, and we have to be really, really good to do that.
“So, yeah, there needs to be a realisation where we’re at because I love it when I see the fans like that today [final day].
“The fans are gonna be powerful for us. We know we have to perform in a way to get them going, but likewise, we need them at home.
“We’re gonna have to make sure that we can get the atmosphere at home to a level and get our performances to a level where regardless who we play in, no one wants to come and face us.
“No one wants to come and face us.
“So whoever we play in, and we’ve done it over long periods this season, not got the maybe the wins that we should have had, and that’s gotta be our lesson.
“So we know we can do it. We know we’re not far away from that where we are now with the amount of draws.
“And, like I say, we’ve not won a game yet where we’ve been second best this season, not one. And we and we need to make sure we can win ugly as well.”
Interviewer: “I remember speaking to you after almost after your first game, and and we talked about the task ahead, you know, way back in August.
“And you said there are massive improvements that we need to make, you know, having had a week or two to look at the squad and the players and that, you know, has it turned out to be even bigger than you thought in terms of those improvements and what’s needed?”
Heckingbottom: “No. Because I know the league. I know how to fit this.
“Like I said, I’ve been it’s been simple. I’m saying the same thing over and over so we could see what there is what needs to improve. So when we’ve been dominant in games, we’ve not took our chances.
“And likewise, today’s a great example. We’ll be top half for, like, say, shots faced for our goalkeepers.
“We’ll be top half in the league. I know we were without even looking.
“So we need to keep more balls out of our net as well. You know?
“We’ve not won a game uglier.
“We’ve not won a game where we’ve been second best.
“We’ve got to do that.
“If we wanna be a top half, we need to win when we’re second best, and we need to convert them draws when we’ve been the better teams into three points.”
Twitter users had their say as Paul Heckingbottom pleas to Preston fans with a huge summer ahead of what he says will be the toughest Championship yet…
@stuartwallace1: Try being less negative at home – we get in front and we settle for a one goal lead – we should have hammered Cardiff – the crowd was right behind the team that night and we paid the penalty
@Ashbpne: Absolutely no issue with the hemmings family spending whatever figure they deem fit however it is WHERE this money goes that should be the issue
@Johnnyproudlove: He needs to think long and hard before coming out with crap like this. Ten years since last play offs, a WBA win away from relegation, no wins in the last ten the football drives the atmosphere! An arrogant useless dinosaur CEO paid more the transfer profit!!!
@pneonline: Hecky makes fair points about the Deepdale atmosphere. We’ve been grafting hard to improve it but performances have to follow. Through https://pneflags.net we’ll keep pushing. That said, the club’s refusal to consider safe standing continues to hold things back. #pnefc
@scottmatchmaker: Let’s be clear, Paul. Fans aren’t queueing up to lose millions — but some owners are happy to do it because those ‘losses’ are tax write-offs. Offsetting against other ventures, playing the long game with property, and claiming moral high ground while paying Peter Ridsdale a king’s sum to whisper in the boardroom. This isn’t heroic ownership. It’s strategic loss-making wrapped in nostalgia. And fans? They’re the ones filling the stands, buying the shirts, and carrying the soul of the club without a single penny back — while being told to shut up unless they’ve got hedge fund money. #pnefc #PrestonNorthEnd
@iwasvvdrunk: They wouldn’t be losing millions if there was a sustainable business model in place. Letting star players leave for free is not the way to do it for starters! We’ve been doing this for years. He’s picking the wrong battle here…
@MrRobertBage: Any chance of an interview with James Wallace and/or Andy McGregor about what the Summer has in store and how our recruitment works? @AndyBayes #pnefc
North End manager Paul Heckingbottom calling out PNE fans who are critical of the owners and defends Craig Hemmings & Peter Ridsdale.
Bit odd the BBC release this less than an hour after season tickets are released.#pnefc pic.twitter.com/SPjM4EEbk1
— North End Football Podcast (@northendpod) May 8, 2025
