Paul Heckingbottom is planning the downfall of Unai Emery. Dressed in a navy tracksuit with a view of the sun -drenched turf at the Preston training complex, his handshake is warm and his eyes are cold as steel.
“We never want to take a backward step against anyone,” he says, for an opener. 'If we spend the entire week stopping it, what do we play for? Nil-Nil and Stratics? That is not going to happen. '
It would not be the worst prediction, in honesty. Preston has eight conductors and two penalty shootouts this season, both victories. Some fans would like to risk someone else. On Sunday, the only non-Premier League side left in the FA Cup-Gastheer Aston Villa in Deepdale for their first quarterfinals in this competition for 59 years.
Heckingbottom reached the semi-final with Sheffield United in 2023, and he hopes to fill a surprise after the entire season supervision of only two losses at home for Bristol City, the other to Arsenal and Ethan Nwaneri's Candy Cane from a left feet.
It will not be easy. Top scorer Milutin Osmajic, who bite Blackburn's Owen Beck in September and has recently been charged by the FA due to alleged racial abuse of Burnley's Hannibal Mejbri, is available. Later more about him.
But Preston comes in with several important absences because players are held, suspended or on the treatment table. The fact that Kaine Kesler-Hayden is not eligible to play against his parent club is a special blow. Is that Faze Heckingbottom? No Jot.
“We know it is feasible,” he says. 'You look at the history of the FA Cup – Sheffield United two years ago, Coventry last year.
'We experienced Fulham and Arsenal this year (in the Carabao Cup), so we know what the level is.
'We were very good against Fulham, a very difficult, competitive game, and we sometimes had to defend very well, but we put our own problems. Arsenal, in the first half they were exceptional. We performed very well in the second half and probably earned a goal, and then Kai Havertz scored a fantastic header. '
Fearless – that is the vision of Heckingbottom for Preston North End. Few teams have won more tackles, claimed the ball in the attacking third as often, or made more interceptions than they were in the championship. They are at the top of the table for poor discipline.
Do not confuse his principles for naivety. Heckingbottom – 'Hecky', is adapting instead of a fixed philosophy. When Preston reaches the promised land among him, it feels a sensible approach given the horror shows of Burnley and Southampton in the last two seasons.
“Unai must start with the options and from the bank, we automatically change our tactical attitude for how he sets his team,” he says. “That will shift during the game.
'You can have an idea if you play football manager, but if you play Champions League quarter -finalists, you use your resources and what you have.
“If we were successful in this competition and were promoted, we should change a lot to be effective in the Premier League.”
Ah, the P-word. It takes 33 seconds to not mention it, not. For Preston fans, promotion is something of mirroring. One of the Grand Old Clubs of the English Game and Champions of the first two seasons of the Football League, they have not been in its top layer since 1961.
North End is located in the championship in their 10th consecutive season and are between the seventh and 14th between the seventh and 14th every time. This season they are … 14th. Alex Neil went close, but you have to go back to the days of David Moyes, Billy Davies and Alan Irvine in the 2000s for the last time they really challenge, with four failed play-off campaigns.
What did Heckingbottom convince that Preston could take the next step when he was in two games in this season with Ryan Lowe's amazing exit?
“I knew I could have a big input,” he says. 'You often come in as a head coach or manager and you have very little input in many of the decisions taken.
'Here I felt that I could have a great influence, together with the owners and Peter (Ridsdale, one of the directors). It's not about how much you have, it's about how you use it.
'I knew the group of players, so I had foreseen what it would be like to work with them. I am really pleasantly surprised and reassured that it was the right decision. I believe 100 percent that we can (be promoted). '
That is easier said than done. Preston has one of the tightest wallets of the division. Heckingbottom is resourceful – funds were scarce in Barnsley, and he was promoted Sheffield United after a late winter transfer embargo – but do the club's ambitions correspond to his?
“Fans always moan (about expenses),” he says. 'If you won the lottery tomorrow, would you give all the money from your family, millions away every year? I don't think you would do that, “he says.
'So it is easy to say, but if it is your money that you give away without a guarantee to get it back, I don't think too many people who say it would actually do it themselves.
'I am happy with the company that we did. This summer it will be a big one, whether or not our own players. '
Preston's record signing is Osmajic for £ 2.1 million from Cadiz in the summer of 2023, and Heckingbottom thinks his 13-target FireBrand Montenegrin attacker has a high ceiling.
“He finishes his socks and I see him as a real coachable boy,” he says. “He has very good attributes, is a real target threat and we are happy with the level where he played.”
Heckingbottom is understandably reluctant to delve into Osmajic's controversies, but offers a reassuring admission: “It is not part of your tactic to send someone outside to bite someone.” Maybe it's a gentleman game.
He is guarded about his time in Sheffield United, where he took the permanent job in 2021, was promoted in 2023 and was fired in December that year with the Blades 20th in the Premier League. Some disappointments?
“No,” he says. 'There are always reasons and things that happen. You and fans are allowed to discover very little about it. I loved my time there.
'I went back in the opposition -Dugout a few weeks ago. It would have been nice to first go back as a fan and see the people who don't get the chance to say goodbye to when you leave.
'Listen, everyone wants to work in the Premier League. Everyone around the world. It is a difficult place to come and even more difficult to stay there. '
Heckingbottom took a few months off after he had left Bramall Lane to develop himself and spend time with a few Champions League managers tipped as future Manchester City bosses, Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen and Michel in Girona.
“I enjoy studying teams that overperform,” he says. 'I went to look at them and record some live games. If you don't work, you have much more time to improve your knowledge and come up with new ideas. '
Heckingbottom, a Barnsley boy born from a miner and a teacher, has often been an underdog in his career. In 1999 he scored against Villa in the FA Cup Third Round with Darlington of the fourth grade, despite the losing of Gillingham in the previous phase.
No, you read that well. Manchester United, when the holders, had stopped controversially to play in the FIFA Club World Championship, and Darlington was drawn as happy losers to make progress.
Unfortunately, Villa Heckingbottom and Co have treated a heartache of a second cup in the room of three weeks. That adds extra fuel to the fire for Sunday.
Wembley, 219 miles away from Deepdale, feels painfully close.
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