The dust had barely settled on the season when Preston moved swiftly to confirm that Frankie McAvoy had been appointed the next permanent head coach of Preston after his successful tenure as an interim coach.
The announcement was not a major susprise given McAvoy had steadied the ship over the final few games of the season. He also follows a line of recent assistants to move into the main seat including Gary Peters, David Moyes and Billy Davies.
It was positive that Preston made a quick decision once the season had ended so that the players and fans alike knew what was happening. It also contrasts with the dithering over player contracts during the last year.
McAvoy was in interim charge for eight games. This is a small sample size to consider whether he is going to be a success over a longer term but he did turn the club away from a flirtation with relegation.
The first team became more steady moving to a wing back formation and became harder to beat. It is ture that they were a touch lucky against Norwich, faced an off colour Swansea before being battered by Brentford but Preston accumulated points to steer them towards a comfortable midtable position.
Preston are still a team that are a considerable distance from a side that will challenge the top places in the division. Changes were always afoot this summer with loan signings in January just papering over the cracks.
North End will be linked with a number of players. It seems Ridsdale is now in main control of recruitment and McAvoy will simply coach. It will be interesting to see who Preston recruit and how they progress but it seems that McAvoy has at least a good solid midtable team to form a base from.