Preston North End have completed the season long loan signing of right back Marnick Vermijl from Sheffield Wednesday.
The 23-year-old defender started his career with Manchester United, alongside fellow loanee Will Keane, before a winter 2015 move to Hillsborough, where he again had Keane for company.
The highly-rated Belgian U21 international, who has a dozen caps at that level for his country, will take the No.2 shirt at Deepdale will be available for the season opener against Middlesbrough at the weekend, live on Sky Sports.
Manager Simon Grayson was delighted to have added a player he identified some time ago, he said: “We were made aware that Marnick could be available right at the start of the summer. At the time it didn’t look like we could do a deal, so people are well aware we looked at other options, however, in football things change quickly and despite the complexities of a deal that has been on and off in the last week, we are delighted to get it done.
“He had a fantastic upbringing at Manchester United, learning and developing from the best in players and staff in the world, before his move to Sheffield Wednesday.
“He can play as an orthodox right back and as a wing back. When you’ve been a Manchester United player you have got to be able to handle the ball; we want him to join in with play when needed to as well as defend.
“You need to be athletic to be a full back in the modern day and he can do all of these things and hopefully we can improve him while he is with us and he can be an asset to us.”
The player himself admitted that the decision was an easy one, to make the move across the Pennines: “I'm really happy that it's finally been completed. I heard a long time ago that Preston North End were interested and I wanted to play regular football and this club was the right choice for me.
“Every talk I've had with the people here at Preston, I just felt at home straight away and for that's really important, so I've made the right choice.”