The story of Josh Harrop with ex-Man United man on search for a new club

It's baking hot in Campoamor but Ben Woodburn is buzzing around like he's one of the flies in Spain and sticking his foot in where it hurts. This is 'only' a friendly but it looks a little bit more important than that to the new Preston North End man. What Woodburn lacks in size, he makes up in sheer will to work. A young lad with a privileged upbringing in the game, but who has now gone down his own path with a point to prove. Sound familiar?

While PNE's 23-man squad were being put through their paces in the sunshine, Josh Harrop was back in England. Maybe he was wondering how exactly it all came to this. Even Matthew Olosunde was on the plane, despite being transfer listed along with Harrop back in May. This is a player whose career can still be saved, but it's way past the point of relying on a Manchester United education to bail him out and turn things around for him. There's only one person who can fix this now; he's 27 in December.

Harrop walked away from Old Trafford five years ago, after scoring against Crystal Palace in the Premier League. That takes guts. The headlines and bright lights did not dazzle him; he was hungry for football and prepared to sacrifice something very few would, in order to get it. His first-season in a PNE shirt was undoubtedly promising - free-kicks fizzed in, 39 appearances and a part played in North End's seventh placed finish under Alex Neil.

The platform was there for him to kick on and go to the next level, but an anterior cruciate ligament injury against West Brom ruled him out of the rest of the following season - just 11 games in. The 2019/20 campaign saw him score eight goals in 36 outings - a year where Harrop scored screamers against Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic in