Why Josh Harrop Is An Excellent Signing For Preston North End
Championship outfit Preston North End have moved to sign Manchester United forward Josh Harrop on a permanent deal.
Harrop joins the Lancashire club on a 4-year deal on July 3rd after the clubs agreed a compensation agreement. The 21-year-old reportedly turned down a contract offer at Old Trafford in order to join Preston, something which puzzles some people, though you can see why the player chose to do it.
For his part, Harrop is looking for a new start and at 21, he knows that he needs to be scoring goals regularly in order to get his career motoring. The likelihood is that had he stayed at Old Trafford, he would have spent another year at least playing under-23 football in front of no one and perhaps getting the odd EFL Cup start.
Harrop was, in fact, the top scorer for Man United’s under-23 team last season, netting 10 times in 25 games. He capped a fine (if somewhat anonymous) season off with a goal in the Red Devils’ 2-0 win over Crystal Palace at the end of the Premier League season and his versatility has impressed North End boss Simon Grayson.
He is the manager’s third summer signing already, after the captures of Declan Rudd from Norwich City and Cork’s Sean Maguire. It’s Harrop’s signing which will excite Preston fans most of all, as his potential is huge.
The player, his family and even those at Old Trafford all saw Harrop as a Premier League player, at least potentially anyway, and so Preston have managed to nab a genuine talent here. The boy from Stockport can play in the midfield or just behind the striker, and is just the sort of player who finds space to bury the opposition.
In the modern game, this league is a lot less about rough and tumble and more about proper talent and there is no doubt that Harrop possesses that. An England under-20 player with 3 caps, Harrop has been highly thought of for a while now and would probably have been able to mix it with the Old Trafford superstars in training.
The modern way for managers like Mourinho is to go only with players they feel they can already trust in the first team and so Harrop was not willing to slow his career any further. A good move by the player and an even better one by Preston.