Ryan Lowe on real reason he quit Preston North End one game into the season

Interview: Manager reveals his reaction to ‘disappointing’ statement from club chairman and how he had to follow his ‘gut instinct’

Ryan Lowe knows the question is coming. The obvious question. The big question: Why did he quit as manager of Preston North End just one game into the new season? What is the real story behind such a dramatic exit?
“I wanted to leave on my own terms and don’t want to fall out with anyone. Wherever I go next I want them to say, ‘good guy, him. We can sit down and work it out’. I want to look them in the eye and them to do that to me,” Lowe says.
“Someone said to me when I went into management, ‘get a few sackings and you’ll be a millionaire’, but I don’t want a few sackings. I want to be right up there. I want to make my money by being successful, not getting sacked.”
The irony is that Lowe believes he saw “good signs” from his Preston side during the 2-0 home defeat by Sheffield United that kicked off the Championship season on August 9. But his “gut instinct” was telling him something different. And the 46-year-old always follows his gut.
The next day, a Saturday, Lowe got up at 7.30am having barely slept and went for a two-hour walk in Sefton Park, Liverpool. The day was to be crammed with football – watching Swansea City and Sunderland, Preston’s next opponents, and also Wigan Athletic versus Charlton Athletic.
He went for a beer with the Preston club chef Chris McCoy. But he was not right. He knew it. His wife knew it. “My missus said: ‘you’re not right, are you? And I said: ‘no’,” Lowe recalls.
So on Sunday morning he texted Preston director Peter Ridsdale and asked to meet him. To drop the bombshell news that he wanted to leave. “He wanted me to stay,” Lowe says. “The chairman [Craig Hemmings] came down and I just said: ‘I think I’ve taken you as far as I can’.
“I had always said, and I stick by my word, that whatever club I am at, if I feel like that then I won’t hang around and pick my money up. I am never going to fall out with my owner, CEO, sporting director…
“When I left the training ground I felt relieved. I had had this weight on my shoulders that I couldn’t shake off. I always felt that if I’m not the one, if I don’t feel the vibe then I am very good with my gut instinct.
“It’s a big thing for me. I have been on the touchline many times and thought: ‘I need to get that player off quick; I need to change shape quick’, and I’ve done it and it’s worked.
“So, I listen to my gut instinct. At the time, I didn’t really speak to anyone apart from my missus. If you feel it’s going to make you ill and if you feel it’s not going be worth it and you’re not enjoying it, then what’s the point?
“And I’ve always said if I’ve taken a club as far as I can and I’m not enjoying it, I’ll go: ‘right, shake hands, let’s walk away’. And that’s what I’ve done.”
But one game? As ever it is not as simple as that. There was a backstory; there was history.
The most fundamental criteria of success in football is outperforming a club’s budget. Lowe has undoubtedly done that through his managerial career: at Plymouth Argyle their wage bill would have placed them 10th in League One – they were fourth when he left; at Preston they should have been 14th in the Championship but were 13th, then they should have been 19th but were 12th, and in his last campaign they should have been 20th but were 10th.
“It will be hard to beat what I did in my two-and-a-half years at the club,” Lowe says. He wishes the best for Preston and for his successor, Paul Heckingbottom. “Hecky rang me and asked: ‘what was the problem?’ And I said: ‘there is no problem. Great club, great bunch of lads, they just need a new voice’. And they have got that,” Lowe maintains.
Last season ended with a tough run of five straight defeats and a statement from Hemmings saying it was “totally unacceptable” even though Preston had that 10th-place finish. Lowe does not say it but it clearly hurt.
He felt, understandably, that he was outperforming and that had to be factored in. Maybe expectations had been raised too high and he was the victim of his own success?
“I was disappointed in that statement but the facts were the facts,” Lowe says. “I could have easily gone: ‘that’s me done’ but we saw the end of the season out and it was difficult. Did I contemplate going to speak to Peter at the end of the season? Yes. But what happened then was it was a bit of a snowball effect.”
When the news broke it was initially assumed, because of the timing, that Lowe had been sacked. But it quickly transpired he had indeed asked to leave, was being authentic and there was no other agenda.
He wanted to be true to Preston and true to himself and, after a holiday, has thrown himself into being ready for when the next opportunity comes up.
But first something else had to happen. “I was invited to watch Plymouth Argyle away to Burnley by Neil Dewsnip, the director of football, and he said: ‘you should be proud because you started this journey’. And I thought: ‘that’s the first time I had heard that. And it made me realise that I’ve done a good job wherever I’ve been and it helped me get my mojo back.”
Lowe is a voracious consumer of football. During his time off he has worked on tactical plans, new formations, new approaches and, then, beyond the pitch, has also been studying other managers and not least how they deal with the media.
He has been up to Glasgow to spend two days with Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers, he has watched how Manchester City prepare for a Champions League match, he is going to Denmark to spend time with Uwe Rösler’s Aarhus and he is due to observe Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso at the end of November but, tellingly, adds: “only if I am not in a job by then”. Lowe is also on a sports management diploma course.
He is taking in games but, as an out-of-work manager, he is careful not to attend matches where head coaches are under pressure.
For example, he called off going to watch Hearts play Celtic because Steven Naismith was in danger – he was later sacked – and similarly did not watch Cardiff City play Derby County because Erol Bulut was set to lose his job.
“It’s very difficult. You are never going to see me in the stands when a manager is under pressure,” Lowe says. He does not want the TV cameras to cut to him watching.
“The reason I went to watch Plymouth was because Wayne [Rooney] had won a couple of games. I never want to be that person. It happened to me at Preston and you feel it.
“With this little bit of a break, it’ll make me a better manager wherever I go next. I want to get back into the Championship but unfortunately someone has to lose their job for me to do that.
“But if that happens and a club wants an established Championship manager who overachieves budgets then I will be right in front of them.
“I will also look at different leagues. I would go to Spain, Holland, Germany, Scotland. But my ambition is to get a team in the play-offs in the Championship and get promoted.”
So, when will he be ready? “Now. Now,” Lowe emphasises. “I’ve had a break. I’ve got my mojo back. I am watching a lot of football and I am meant to be in football. I have a work ethic and a belief and a desire to do well. That’s me.”