Tom Clarke says that the new players have instantly blended in to the Lilywhites’ squad after meeting for the first time on the opening day of pre-season.
Clarke was speaking to PNE.Com from North End’s Springfields training ground, and he is pleased to be back with his team-mates new and old as the countdown to the 2014/15 season cranks up a notch.
“I was looking forward to getting back for pre-season training,” said Clarke.
“The last couple of days in the build-up to it have been good, and I’m looking forward to meeting all the new lads and getting on with training – it is a season I am looking forward to.
“With the gaffer, he brings good players in but also good players who can fit in with what we have got already and that’s what he has done again.
“The new lads have fitted in straight away and it feels like they have been here for a long time so that is brilliant.
“That’s what he does the gaffer; he brings in good players but also good characters.”
Clarke knows a couple of new faces better than most, being joined this season by summer capture Calum Woods and former Huddersfield Town fitness coach Tom Little who has been added to the North End backroom staff for the season ahead.
And last season’s PNE No.5 believes both will bring a great deal to the table at Preston.
He continued: “With Tom Little the fitness coach, he is very good.
“I had a couple of pre-seasons with him and we had good seasons and hardly any injuries, so touch wood that happens again and he brings a lot of experience.
“The same can be said for Calum Woods.
“He has played at Championship level and has a lot of experience and is someone that can play in a lot of positions.”
This summer has been a busier one for Clarke than for most, with the small matter of his wedding following the end of the 2013/14 campaign.
And despite how that season ended, Clarke is ready to put it out his memory and focus on the job in hand of securing Championship football at Deepdale once more.
“The Play-Offs were still on my mind even on my wedding day,” stated Clarke.
“It was something that was frustrating, that we couldn’t go that one extra step, but you have got to dust yourself down now.
“It is going to be another tough season, the teams that have come up are good teams and the ones that have come down are good, so it is going to be an equally tough season but we have to be up near the Play-Offs and the top two again.
“My wedding was a brilliant day, I couldn’t have asked for a better day.
“It was red hot and she turned up which was good!
“It was a brilliant day and nice to get away on honeymoon but it is good to be back now.”