Preston North End wanted to spend on a new striker before last summer’s transfer deadline and ended up bringing Milutin Osmajic to Deepdale.
Osmajic was a real departure from North End’s usual transfer approach.
A Montenegrin striker on the books of a La Liga club, coming off the back of loan spells in Turkey and Portugal.
North End fans had wanted to see some more imagination in the transfer market and Osmajic was a hugely surprising addition.
To make the move even for stunning, PNE broke the club’s transfer record in the process with a £2.15million deal.
Osmajic has been through ups and downs in his first PNE season but is the man of the moment right now having hit a stunning hat-trick against Huddersfield Town on Tuesday night.
Osmajic has now scored eight goals this season and North End will hope to see more from him going forward after turning to him having chased Tom Cannon all summer.
PNE wanted Tom Cannon
Cannon spent the second half of last season on loan at PNE, joining from Everton in his first loan move away from Goodison Park.
Eight goals in 20 league games saw Cannon become a fan favourite, especially after scoring against Blackpool.
Much of the summer was spent chasing Cannon with North End fans hoping for his return – even just on loan.
Cannon attended the pre-season friendly win over Aberdeen in July but the weeks went by without a deal being done.
North End did put forward a permanent offer and had a deal agreed with Everton – only for Cannon to pick a move to Leicester City.
Peter Ridsdale confirmed that the deal agreed was ‘four times’ PNE’s transfer record, putting together a structured deal to bring Cannon to Deepdale full-time.
Leicester’s deal ended up being worth around £7.5million and that move left PNE to focus on landing Osmajic for a fraction of the price.
Cannon out of favour at Leicester
Cannon had a relatively slow start to life at Leicester as a stress fracture in his back emerged just weeks after joining the Foxes.
The 21-year-old returned in December and started making an impact, bagging two goals and one assist in 12 appearances.
However, Cannon hasn’t played since the 2-1 defeat to Queens Park Rangers on the 2nd of March.
Leicester boss Enzo Maresca has now told the Leicester Mercury that there is no issue with Cannon and that he is just out of the team because there are so many other strikers at the club.
Maresca believes that Cannon would shine for any other Championship club and praised the way he trains, but it’s unclear when he will receive another chance.
“Tom is fine. With Tom, I feel a bit how I felt with Patson at the beginning of the season. It’s a shame. I feel sad. He trains fantastic every day. I’m sure at any other club, he’s the kind of striker who can score many goals,” said Maresca.
“But because we have so many strikers, I need to take a decision. But for sure, Tom is a fantastic professional and a fantastic player. Unfortunately, sometimes he stays out. There are not any problems with him,” he added.
When Cannon made the move to Leicester, some PNE fans questioned whether Cannon would play games given that they have the likes of Jamie Vardy, Patson Daka and Kelechi Iheanacho.
Leicester being able to splash millions of pounds on a striker yet barely use him just sums up the financial disparity between the clubs going down and those in the Championship.
We would love to see Cannon thrive, where it may be, and who could really rule out a return to PNE one day?
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