The Transfer Window: Minute-By-Minute
Monday 1st September 2008
Window closes at 00:00, Tuesday 2nd September 2008
Frenzied transfer activity will be breaking out all over the country today, so make sure you're up to date with all the big moves as they happen courtesy of our minute-by-minute transfer coverage.
If we get a sniff of a story, we'll share it with you, but we need your help. Have you seen Barry in Burger King, Totti at the Tickled Trout, or Nugent in the newsagents?
Send us what you know to media@pne.com, and we'll publish all the plausible suggestions here...
2249: It's all over. The rumours, whispers, last minute deals and gossip of the summer transfer window is over as far as Preston North End are concerned. We just have to wait to the emergency transfer window opens now in seven days time. Goodnight from everyone in the PNE MEDIA department.
2241: So the deal that we all knew about has happened. Hill to Wolves and Elliott arriving at Deepdale. I'm just going to check with the Gaffer if there's any more news and write up a few words from Mr Irvine himself on what has been a strange old night. I will be back in a jiffy to put your minds at rest.
2218: Told you I might disappear for a bit. The wait will be over very shortly and then we can all go to bed.
2200: The news at ten!!! Nothing at the minute but watch this space!
2131: Darren Jones wants to know the identity of the owner of the brand new Mini Cooper on the Club car park. It belongs to Christiano Ronaldo I am reliably informed by our Club Secretary.
2129: Carlo Nash is getting a little nearer to London. He's gone to Everton so thanks for the earlier tip-off from an anonymous fan.
2123: So just over two-and-a-half hours to go. The ridiculous aspect of all this is that the emergency loan window opens before we even kick a ball in anger again. Discodaz, many thanks for the joke but even though we are past the watershed I can't publish it on this website. Napoleon thanks for adding a very interesting slant to the Berbatov debacle. Hope to have some North End news for you very very soon, I am getting that vibe! You'll know something is happening as I will disappear for a while and the updates will not be so up-to-date.
2111: Thanks for the support guys. When I said 'lonely' I meant that my usual work colleagues aren't here. There are obviously other people here but I can't disclose who they are just yet for obvious reasons. Steven Donnelly's suggestion of watching Dragon's Den is a good one if only I wasn't Sky-Plussing it.
2056: Intrigue abound. Exeter City's highly-rated left-back George Friend is on his way to the Midlands to discuss terms with Mick McCarthy according to the Grecians' official website.
2053: The PNE offices are a lonely place at this time of night. Can someone send me something to cheer me up? Sky Sports News is numbing my brain.
2044: Stop the press!!! Berbatov spotted at the Tickled Trout!!! Is this a red herring Tom Harrison or have you unearthed the transfer story of the century?
2029: Just had a whisper that JJ Okocha has been seen at Deepdale Retail Park. Was he at the Subway or in the Hobbicraft? This is just the type of 'inside information' which makes football so great.
2021: One Championship rumour which has popped up in the last hour or so is that Crystal Palace's Tom Soares could be on his way to Stoke City. It seems that the Potters just can't decide how they are going to spend that Jon Parkin windfall!
2018: The time deadline kind of rules out a lot of moves now. I would suggest that any players not already north of London are ruled out of a move to Deepdale (unless they are already on their way here!!) and if they are coming from Scotland they better get a move on also. Still plenty of time for anyone making a move from Yorkshire or the Midlands.
2011: Less than four hours to go. The lights are still on in the Deepdale offices, that I can confirm. What I cannot confirm though is any transfer dealings involving PNE...yet. Local rivals Blackpool have completed a deal for Rangers striker Alan Gow for £180,000, the deal looked like a non-starter this morning which just shows you how things can change so quickly in this game.
1947: Sorry this deadline day hysteria is getting to me. I got my Marin's (American Painter) mixed up with Marlin's (Big Fish) and therefore dropped in a terrible fish pun.
1944: Something fishy going on down on the South Coast? The Pilgrims have caught a Marin, in the form of French left-winger Nicolas Marin who arrives on a season-long loan from Lorient.
1930: Still here and it's still very quiet. Just down the road the Clarets have snapped up one-time North End target Steve Thompson on a free-transfer from Cardiff City. Reading reportedly turn down a £3.5m bid for Irish striker Stephen Hunt. If I was Steve Coppell I would turn my phone off as there's serious speculation that Reading will do well to keep hold of a few of the prize assets including, Kevin Doyle. Hope the Royals don't lose Doyle as he's in my fantasy team and he did the business at the weekend with a timely hat-trick. Have you signed up for our Fantasy League yet? The pin number for the official North End fans league is 763 with the top team at the end of the season winning a signed PNE shirt.
1907: Berbatov is still dominating things nationally. The Gaffer has hinted previously that the transfer window needs to be kick-started by a big deal at the top of the game so are we waiting for
this deal to come off before it all really gets going?
1849: One man who is leaving the bright lights of Championship is former Birmingham man Sone Aluko. The England U19 international was on emergency loan at Blackpool last month but has decided to move north of the border to Aberdeen.
1847: It's gone a bit quiet. Both in the office and in the world of football. I can confirm that PNE Media will be here though until we are told that all the day's business is done.
1758: Stop press - Romain Gasmi leaves Strasbourg for Southampton on loan and Jonathan Grounds, likewise, is making a short-term but long-distance move as he trades Middlesbrough for Norwich on a temporary transfer. I wonder which is further as the crow flies - Strasbourg to Southampton or Middlesbrough to Norwich? I've got too much else on to bother finding out, but I'm sure someone can tell me. I reckon the latter is probably a tad closer, but not by much.
1727: Must be an important move for the lad Illugason - BBC's transfer tracker has mentioned it twice.
1717: Unpronounceable transfer alert! Reading have loaned their 18-year-old Icelandic striker Viktor Unnar Illugason to Eastbourne Borough for a month. Is it really worth it for all the typing involved?
1645: To the many who have e-mailed on the subject of the Elliott/Hill deal, this is still the latest we have on that front... Link: Double Negotiations Underway.
1629: Oliver Shoesmith - another man with a media-related e-mail address - tells us he has seen Victor Anichebe in town today. Not that old one again...
1620: Jon Stead is now an Ipswich player, albeit on loan until January after Kevin Blackwell deemed him surplus to requirements at Sheffield United.
1555: Will Cardiff manage to sell a player today? They will if Steve Thompson moves to Burnley, as speculated.
1520: Just to confirm the news you'll be able to read elsewhere on the site that Jon Parkin is now officially a PNE player. Get down to the Club Shop for your 'Beast 26' printed shirts now!
1510: Sounds like Mears to Marseille is a done deal, but Joe Ledley's proposed £5m move from Cardiff to Stoke may have hit a snag. He'll be annoyed at that - I hear he was wearing his best suit at the time.
1508: Busy times at Molineux as Wolves agree a deal to sign Norwich's Jason Shackell.
1442: David, again, is trying his best to move the transfer market forward to reduce his earlier concerns. Dimitar Berbatov is said by Sky Sports News to be on his way to Manchester City and/or United, bit there could be competition. "Wonder if Alan will nip in with a cheeky bid?" he ponders.
1435: David from NWCPNE has hit the nail on the head: "Either the credit crunch has hit football or we are in for a very late night. Could this be the end of the transfer window? It doesn't work."
1344: Not gossip, but another good e-mail, this time from the Rev. Keith, who asks why we still had a front page story about Charlton tickets. A problem with the cache is the answer - I spent 15 minutes updating that page this morning to advise that Burnley tickets are now on sale to season ticket holders, only for our toolkit software to ignore everything I'd done and re-hash the old story on the site. Baffling.
1335: Stephen Alger e-mails us with the news that David Nugent is heading to Birmingham City. "Bad news for PNE on the playing side of things but could be good on the finacial side" as he puts it. A fair assessment if that one comes off.
1323: Just had an anonymous whisper through via e-mail that a former Preston North End keeper - loved by many supporters - is going to be making a shock move to link up with a former PNE boss, now in charge at a Premier League club. Can you put two and two together and get 22?
1312: Robert Urbani, our former media and marketing executive who recently moved on to Bolton Wanderers, has just been in touch to ask if there's anything going on here at Deepdale. I can only assume it's as quiet at the Reebok as it is here if he has time to e-mail us during the working day.
1244: This could be a controversial one: "You say it's very quiet on e-mail transfer rumour front. OK, here's one then - I was told Craig Beattie would be on his way to Deepdale. Any truth?" - Tony Paley.
Thanks for asking Tony, but this is merely an answerphone service - I can't actually get back to people because I don't actually know anything.
Judging by your national newspaper-related e-mail address, it looks like you're fishing for a story to me. Had you asked the question back in March, my answer would certainly have been 'yes', but you've got me stumped on this one.
1240: Correction - I'm reliably informed they're actually talking about Anthony Stokes from Sunderland. Makes more sense now...
1235: I've just been taking a quick look at what everybody's discussing on the PNE-Online forum, and they seem to suggest we're going to be raiding the Britannia Stadium for the second time in three days by signing somebody called 'Anthony' from Stoke.
1223: You're all very quiet on the e-mail rumour front, although Chris Ham was kind enough to get in touch and correct a factual error I made earlier. Not a great deal is happening anywhere it seems, with Ben Watson rejecting a move from Crystal Palace to Nottingham Forest, though Tyrone Mears could be set to complete his controversial loan move from Derby to Marseille, flowing in the opposite direction to the tide of French league stars currently crossing the channel to join mid table Premier League outfits.
1059: Bristol City are expected to be the first Championship side to make an incoming transfer today when £140,000-rated 18-year-old John Akinde signs in from Ebbsfleet United. Could that switch provide the cover to back up the South Wales Evening Post's line about Lee Trundle moving back to Swansea?
1038: How come nobody from the media managed to pick up that PNE old boy Paul Gallagher snuck off to Plymouth at the 11th hour on Saturday (literally, it was around 11am)? First we heard about it was when he was listed in the Pilgrims line-up in the match report, and Blackburn's website still hasn't reported that he's gone, though mysteriously he has vanished from their squad list at rovers.co.uk. Maybe a sign that he's going for good?
0946: No sooner had we mentioned Nugent than his name cropped up elsewhere. We all know he wasn't at Goodison Park on Saturday, but it appears the north west could prove tempting to him if the Daily Mirror is to be believed. They have him listed as the man at the top of Steve Bruce's shopping list at Wigan. He'll do well to dislodge England man Heskey and Egyptian wonderkid Zaki after the way they destroyed Hull on Saturday - though maybe the Latics are planning to throw three up front and blow the rest of the Premier League clubs out of the water with their own pie-shaped version of total football.
0942: Rumours elsewhere suggest Alexei Smertin could be making a season long loan from Fulham to Cardiff, while it is reported that Rangers striker Alan Gow has turned down a £250,000 move to Blackpool, immediately endearing him to North Enders everywhere.
0920: Welcome to our transfer tracker, which will hopefully be a hotbed of gossip throughout the day. Get those stories rolling in, and we'll try and decipher which contain a grain of truth and which are purely a pack of lies. Here in the media department, we've heard rumours that Stephen Elliott and Matt Hill may be involved in an elaborate swap deal between PNE and Wolves, but that one sounds a bit far fetched to us.
