Opinion: After another strong showing v West Brom, Preston North End should break the bank to sign loanee in the summer

Preston North End ended the unbeaten home record of West Bromwich Albion this season on Wednesday night after a strong showing away from home against the Baggies.

The Lilywhites turned up to The Hawthorns with a game-plan and pressed Valerien Ismael’s side high, with their direct style not flustering Ryan Lowe’s men one bit.

Goals either side of half time from Emil Riis and Cameron Archer on his debut sealed all three points for North End, sending their fans back up the M6 in a buoyant mood.

The squad that Lowe has at his disposal is not the finished article by a long shot, but it’s going to be difficult to get any more deals done this month unless others depart first.

A number of players are out of contract in the summer – the likes of Tom Barkhuizen, Paul Huntington and others are among that – they will free up some budget for incomings.

And what PNE fans really want to happen is for the loan deal for Liverpool defender Sepp van den Berg to be made permanent, with the Dutch youngster having a sensational season at Deepdale.

Van den Berg arrived at North End last season as part of the deal that took Ben Davies to Anfield, making 16 appearances between February and the end of the 2020-21 campaign, mainly though in an unfamiliar wing back position.

He had joined the Reds as a centre back and played there in the development squads but it was somewhat of a baptism of fire for Van den Berg, but he was quite clearly up to the task and returned over the summer to North End – this time on a full season arrangement though.

Having been quite clear that he wanted to play as a centre back, Van den Berg had to feature at wing back again for the first 14 matches of the current campaign but since the end of October, the 20-year-old