Simon Grayson believes Preston North End have got their hands on a talented young goalkeeper in Jordan Pickford.
The 21-year-old made his debut in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat at Bury after joining the evening before on loan from Sunderland for the season.
Lilywhites boss Grayson had been looking to bring Sam Johnstone back from Manchester United.
A combination of United not being in a position yet to let Johnstone out and Pickford being made available by the Black Cats, led to Friday’s change of course.
Johnstone, and Declan Rudd before him, both impressed during their time at Deepdale and Pickford comes at a similar stage of his development.
“United basically said that they were not prepared to make a decision on Sam yet,” Grayson told the Evening Post. “We waited all summer for news on the situation but we got to a stage where we just felt we were leaving ourselves too vulnerable.
“There was the risk of not getting Sam and then we would have missed out on Jordan, who would have gone to another Championship club.
“During pre-season we had kept our eye on keepers and Jordan was top of the list of young English goalkeepers who could be available.
“Does it close the door on Sam? You would think so, although you can’t say yes or no because anything could happen in the future.
“We are just very happy to have got Jordan here and we go into the season now with a very good goalkeeper.”
http://www.lep.co.uk/sport/national-football/pne-keeper-s-a-top-pick-1-7389283