Preston North End's Struggles Under Paul Heckingbottom: A Call for Wins

Paul Heckingbottom knows the talking has to stop. After a summer of heavy investment and sweeping change, Preston North End are rooted to the bottom of the Championship with four defeats from four. The finances are in place. The squad is in place. The wins are not.

The Preston boss arrived at Deepdale’s new era with backing few of his predecessors enjoyed. Across July and August, a dozen new faces walked through the door, transforming a squad he insists was nowhere near ready when the season kicked off.

"There's no way we had a competitive team at the start of the season," he told BBC Radio Lancashire, underlining just how chaotic those opening weeks felt. "The squad has changed every single week from the first game."

That churn has stopped. Now the excuses must too.

"We've got the tools now. We've put the squad together. Now we have to get to work and get the wins," he said. "That's the only way noise stops. You've got to start winning."

The noise is growing. Last season, Preston sat fourth in January and dared to dream of the play-offs. Then the campaign unravelled. Only three victories in their final 15 matches dragged them down to 14th, a collapse that sharpened the sense that something more radical was needed.

This summer, the board delivered it. Heckingbottom describes the financial backing as unprecedented. But he has been clear: money alone won’t turn Preston into promotion contenders overnight.

"The biggest thing that we had to do as a club if we want to move forward and start competing is make sure we can develop our own players," he said. For him, that is the long game. Bring talent through, grow together, or sell smart and reinvest. Either way, build something sustainable.

"Ultimately the benefit is you have success together, or you sell players and move on and invest," he added. "Progression, finishing as high as we can, and winning promotion and growing the club is further down the line. The short term is just winning games."

The short term looks stark. Four league games, four defeats, just three goals scored. A Lancashire derby against Blackburn Rovers looms on Saturday, with pressure already clinging to every touch.

Heckingbottom knows where one of the biggest problems lies. The attack has been stripped back and rebuilt on the fly.

"Even now, we lost five centre-forwards in the summer, and we've replaced them with two," he said. That kind of turnover would unsettle any frontline, let alone one trying to find its rhythm in a league as unforgiving as the Championship.

So Preston will have to be inventive. They cannot simply wait for a classic No 9 to solve it all.

"We're going to have to get goals and assists and create chances in other ways. We've tried that with the wider players," Heckingbottom explained. He wants threat from every line, not just the strikers.

That demand stretches to the back as well. Set pieces, second balls, chaos in the box – all of it has to count.

"We'll need goals from centre-backs as well this season, which we haven't previously had enough of."

The message is blunt: the recruitment drive is over, the groundwork is done. With rivals circling and the table already taking shape, Preston’s new-look squad has to turn investment and intention into something more tangible. Starting with Blackburn.