Preston North End’s pre-season friendly with Barcelona has been cancelled at the 11th hour. The Championship side were set to face Barcelona in a behind-closed-doors friendly played at St. George’s Park, but the match has been scrapped the day before it was due to take place.
Spanish outlet Mundo Deportivo claim that the reason behind the abrupt cancellation is that Preston didn’t have enough senior players to fulfil the fixture. They had offered to play the match with their under-21 team instead, but it’s claimed Barcelona refused the offer and organised a regular training session instead.
Preston didn’t want to risk any further injuries ahead of their first competitive game of the season next weekend, when they face Huddersfield Town in the League Cup. Barcelona, meanwhile, are in the United Kingdom as part of their pre-season tour, having played against Birmingham last week.
Following the training session in place of the friendly, Barcelona will return to Spain, in what is an earlier return than was originally scheduled. They have two more pre-season outings, which will come against Udinese and Nottingham Forest next weekend.
As part of the three-team tournament, each side will play 45 minutes and will be held at the Bluenergy Stadium in Udine. After that, they will face Egyptian side Al Ahly in the prestigious Joan Gamper Trophy at Camp Nou, in what is the final test before the season gets underway.
By contrast, Preston had faced off against Stockport County over the weekend ahead of their campaign getting underway. Off the field, the Lancashire outfit have been rocked after reported attempts by Wrexham to sign skipper Ben Whiteman.
A deal in the region of £2million has been mooted, with manager Paul Heckingbottom having issued a brutal assessment of the saga. Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire, Heckingbottom said: “Ben told me, told Peter (Ridsdale, CEO) he’s played his last game for the club. He’s trying to force a move, which is an issue for me, for the players.”
Before adding: “We’ve been in regular conversations in the last few days, and Ben knew there was a line I didn’t want him to cross. Unfortunately he has, and you can’t have that. My priority now is the players that are here and the players who want to play for us, and represent the club… Listen, there’s a valuation on him. I just hope for Ben’s sake that Wrexham are willing to pay it, otherwise he’s put himself in a really sticky situation.”