Championship manager 'disappointed' with Stoke City move after Alex Neil steals coach

Preston North End manager Ryan Lowe has voiced his displeasure after one of his coaching staff decided to make the switch to Championship rivals Stoke City under former Sunderland boss Alex Neil.

Paul Gallagher looks set to reunite with his former boss at Stoke just under two years since he took up a coaching role with Preston North End. The 38-year-old played for the club over 300 times and won promotion from League One.

Lowe told our sister title the Lancashire Evening Post: “I'm disappointed in terms of how it's going to unfold or how it's unfolded. Gal wanted a different challenge, through his agent, he said he wanted to move on to a different agent which is fine. I felt a little bit let down, to be honest, me and Mike Marsh.

"We coached him for 18 months and gave him everything we wanted for him to be better. He's a fantastic young coach, a top lad. I'm disappointed with how it's gone but listen, until the football club who is after him pay the compensation, it works both ways.

"Hopefully that will be resolved in the next few days and once it's resolved, I can look further down the line to replace him and he can look ahead to his new challenge, and I'll wish him all the best.

"Ultimately, until that happens, we can't really do anything about it but I'm sure it will over the next few days.”

Gallagher was also absent from Preston North End's first pre-season friendly despite having not yet concluded the move formally.

Lowe added: “When you want a new challenge and you want to go away and you want to move somewhere else, you can't obviously come back to work, can you?

"Hopefully it'll get sorted over the next couple of days and we'll wish Gally all the best. I've not got a bad word to say about him.

"I'm disappointed with how it's happened and how it's come about, which will stay private, but ultimately it's football. Coaches come and go, managers come and go and players come and go.”