Chaplow on Preston move
Albion midfielder Richard Chaplow has ended his three-year stay at The Hawthorns by sealing a transfer to Preston that could net the Baggies £1.35m.
Chaplow has returned to his Lancashire roots to sign for the Championship's bottom club – and insisted he has not given up on his Premier League dream.
"I've been at Albion for three years and I've been in and out of the team," said Chaplow.
"There were a few clubs interested in me, and my agent asked if I'd like to come to Preston – the answer was obviously 'yes'.
"I wanted to come to another Championship club with prospects like Preston have got and I want to be a first team player and hopefully get us off the foot of the table."
Albion will feel the potential for a £1.35m windfall represents good business, three years after they paid his home-town club, Burnley, £1.5m for his services.
He has since found his first team opportunities at The Hawthorns limited and he left for Southampton in a three-month loan deal two years ago.
But he did manage an extended run in the Albion side in the closing stages of last season as he helped them book a place in the Championship play-offs.
However, the arrival of James Morrison, Filipe Teixeira and Chris Brunt, in the summer, pushed him further down the Baggies' pecking order and his final appearance in an Albion shirt came in Monday's miserable 5-1 reserves defeat to Nottingham Forest.
He has now taken on the challenge of helping to save North End from relegation to League One, but he believes he can realise his aim of playing Premier League football at Deepdale.
He said: "I don't want to play League One football, and if I thought this club was going to be playing at that level I wouldn't have signed. This club is capable of reaching the Premier League."
