Preston North End have had some big-name managers and some slightly eccentric managers down the years.
From World Cup winners Alan Ball, Sir Bobby Charlton and Nobby Stiles to John Beck and Graham Westley, to the successful ones like Billy Davies and David Moyes.
Incumbent Ryan Lowe has the Lilywhites in the mix for the promotion places, albeit some way behind the top two. In what is still a young managerial career, the Liverpudlian already has two promotions on his CV and was on his way to challenging for a third before he left Plymouth Argyle for Lancashire.
Lowe’s impressive start to management has already led to his name being linked with roles at bigger (sorry Preston!) clubs. He was reportedly in the running for the Ibrox hot seat after Rangers sacked Michael Beale. Will we see Lowe get a move higher up the footballing ladder?
Lowe became manager of Championship side Preston North End in December 2021 after the club had dismissed Frankie McAvoy. The former Shrewsbury Town striker earned his chance at English football’s second table after a highly successful start to his managerial career.
A long playing career officially came to an end in 2018 but Lowe had already tasted life in the dugout as caretaker manager for Bury before being announced as the club’s permanent boss. He joined Bury at a time of turmoil that eventually led to the club’s demise.
The club were coming off the back of an awful season in League One that had seen them finish bottom with only 36 points. The dismal campaign had seen two permanent managers, two caretaker stints for Lowe, over 20 players exiting the club and the rumblings of financial issues.
The new man set about the rebuild using a combination of free transfers and loan signings mixing the experience of Nicky Adams with the youth of loan signing Jordan Rossiter from Rangers.
The Shakers made a slow start to the season but managed to keep in touch with the leading pack before finding form and finishing second only to a very good Lincoln City side. Lowe’s achievement of gaining promotion in his first full season was made even more impressive by what was happening off the pitch at Gigg Lane.
November saw the players go unpaid but it was also the month that the manager somehow got his team firing as they embarked on a run of just two defeats from 21 games. This was repeated in February when the side went through the month without tasting defeat as the club was appearing in court at the request of HM Revenue and Customs. Yet again the players went unpaid for March and the crucial clash with Colchester United in April only went ahead after an agreement was reached with the playing staff. It was the PFA who were to pick up 50% of March and April’s wages.
With promotion secured and problems increasing, Lowe would leave the crisis club for Home Park and Plymouth Argyle. The Pilgrims had swapped places with The Shakers having been relegated from League One on goal difference under Derek Adams.
The former Crewe Alexandra frontman set about building a side capable of bouncing back at the first attempt and he started this process by taking five of his former Bury players with him. Lowe would again lead a side to an indifferent start to a campaign only to guide them to hitting form at the business end of the season.
His new side sat third in League Two when the season ended prematurely due to the Covid outbreak giving Lowe his second promotion in as many seasons. Season number one in League One would see the club consolidate their status in the third tier with an 18th-place finish.
Season number two in the division got off to a flyer and, after a few tweaks to his squad, the young manager had led his side to the top spot by the start of November and would leave them in the playoff places when his fine start to life in the dugout attracted Preston North End’s attention and Lowe was headed north.
One criticism that has been thrown at Lowe is the idea that Bury overspent and he was able to throw money at getting promoted. From the outside looking in, it is all too easy to make those suggestions towards the manager after what happened to the club but the financial problems at the club were taking shape before he entered the dugout.
In an article published in Four Four Two magazine just days after Bury’s expulsion, Lowe denies overspending and claims the budget he was awarded was ‘competitive’ and that he slashed the outgoings.
He admits that there were players at the club on big contracts who were signed before his tenure. Lowe says, “What was there beforehand I can’t disclose, but I spent around £1.2-£1.3million on 12-13 players and I used the best players I could that were already there.” The double promotion winner counteracts this by discussing the amount of money he saved the club, stating, “With the old owner, I slashed a million pounds off the budget straight away by getting rid of a lot of players who I didn’t want and didn’t fit my criteria.”
Spending over £1 million in the fourth tier is a lot but with the expenditure that he helped remove, the spend of around £300,000 is an outlay more in keeping with the division. Regardless of the money the players were earning or the fees paid, the manager was required to gel a new side together and to get them to perform amid the turmoil off the pitch and against the backdrop of not receiving their wages is an impressive feat.
Interestingly, Transfermarkt has Lowe’s total outgoings across his time at Bury and Plymouth standing at zero. Absolutely nothing! The manager’s admissions regarding spending should be seen as more reliable but that still means two promotions secured with a net spend of roughly £300,000. Impressive.
Ryan Lowe earned a reputation for playing attractive, attacking football that is highlighted by the 82 goals his Bury side scored and the 61 (in only 37 games) scored by Plymouth. The 45-year-old takes inspiration from superstar managers Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Rafa Benitez, encouraging attack-minded play and for his sides to keep the ball but move it quickly using wing backs and balls into the channels using a 3-5-2 formation.
The Preston manager’s formation of choice has been deployed at the very top level by managers such as Antonio Conte and Mauricio Pochettino and, when implemented correctly, provides a great attacking threat and makes you hard to score against.
North End was languishing in 18th when Lowe took charge but the new man hit the ground running, winning his first two matches in charge and only losing six of the remaining 25 Championship matches to guide The Lilywhites to 13th.
Six new players, again on free transfers, arrived at Deepdale for Lowe’s first full season at the helm including Newcastle United’s Freddie Woodman and Troy Parrott of Tottenham Hotspurs. The new manager had made his side harder to beat and led them to a 12th-place finish, ahead of teams like Norwich City having been on the coattails of the playoffs until the final few weeks of the campaign. The current season saw North End make a bright start, sitting atop the Championship for three gameweeks after six wins from seven matches. The current downturn in form can linked to playing five of the top nine over the last six games.
Lowe may have been accused of big spending in the past so what makes having Preston in the top eight of the division more impressive is the fact the £3.3 million spent this summer is the only £3.3 million he has spent while at Deepdale. Compare that to the spending of Leicester City (£38 million), Leeds United (£30 million) and even struggling Coventry City (£26 million) and the current playoff challenge is overachieving.
Preston sit 23rd of 36 when it comes to spending since the start of the 2021-22 season and around £2 million of the total outlay was before Lowe’s appointment. Even compared to his predecessors, his war chest has been minimal at best. Former bosses Alex Neil and Simon Grayson spent a combined £17 million adding even tighter restraints to the current management regime as the club continues to work within financial fair play regulations.
The former Bury man had garnered a reputation as a manager who plays fast, attacking football but what he has done at Preston is to change his approach to better suit what he has at his disposal. He recognised the club needed to be harder to break down and had to do this without the luxury of a big budget.
Lowe’s success is not going unnoticed by everybody as talkSPORT pundit and former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy believes the Liverpool-born manager is underrated. The article, reported in Football League World, makes an interesting comparison with current Southampton boss Russell Martin who is viewed by many as someone destined for the top. Martin has previously been in charge at MK Dons and Swansea where he achieved mid-table finishes whereas Lowe has achieved two promotions.
Writer’s View
Ryan Lowe made a blistering start to full-time management achieving back-to-back promotions. The elevation with Bury was earned in tough circumstances with players and staff going unpaid as the club was making court appearances. He is now improving Preston North End as he looks to push them from mid-table mediocrity to playoff challengers.
Despite claims to the contrary, he can work within a budget, getting Plymouth out of League Two at the first attempt and building the foundations that have seen them achieve Championship status once again. Being able to coach and improve players already at the club or spot bargains in the transfer market is an attractive trait for an owner looking to hire.
From taking the Bury job permanently in January 2018, Lowe has picked up an average of 1.5 points per game. Over a 46-game season, this would equate to just under 70 points and put his side in contention for a playoff spot. This is a particularly impressive return when the first few months at Bury were spent in charge of a floundering side and the Preston team he took over were sliding down the Championship table.
The former Burscough striker has demonstrated how flexible he is in his approach. At Bury and Plymouth, his team attacked and scored lots of goals but that wasn’t working at Preston so changes were made. The Lilywhites may not be scoring a bag full of goals but they are sitting in the upper reaches of the table.
Lowe’s record, particularly if this season continues to be a successful one, is very good and deserving of a chance with a bigger club in a higher league.
What goes against him is the Premier League’s poor record of hiring managers straight out of the Championship. Aside from a few anomalies such as Chelsea hiring their legend Frank Lampard from Derby County and managers getting moves following promotion to or relegation from the Premier League, the move doesn’t really happen. Graham Potter and former Preston manager David Moyes are the standout pair who have been hired from the Championship and gone on to do well in the top division.
So, does Ryan Lowe deserve a chance in the Premier League? There is a strong argument for yes. Will he get that chance? It would seem unlikely unless he can guide his current side to promotion.