CRESSWELL JOINS NORTH END

PRESTON NORTH END have completed the signing of Leicester City striker Richard Cresswell for a fee of £500,000.

The former England Under-21 star spent three months on loan at Deepdale last term and impressed North End boss David Moyes sufficiently to warrant him pursuing the 23-year-old, with the intention of luring him to the North West permanently.

Moyes explained the situation to the club's official website, saying: "Cressy impressed us when he came in last season with his attitude and commitment and he'll give us something extra. We have been lacking a bit of size and I think in all the games he played for us he did very well.

"He didn't make many starts because it is hard to separate the double-act of David Healy and Jon Macken, but he can play a little bit wider and he certainly never let us down.

"He's a 23-year-old boy who we feel maybe lost his way in the last year or so and hopefully we can get him into our group and work really hard with him like we have Jon Macken, Paul McKenna, Colin Murdock and we can then get back the real Richard Cresswell.

"I felt that at £500,000 it is a good price. We've done our work and waited our time, because at one time we were being quoted figures in the region of £1 million.

"The fans know I've not got a lot of money to splash about, so we are going to have to be patient and get the players at prices that are suitable to the club.

"We missed out on one or two players, but we have to make sure we keep our wages right because we haven't got a lot of money to spend."