This is his first permanent crack at managing in the Championship. He has waited a long time for it.

He will have a top-class training facility and everything that goes with being a second-tier club.

Anyone who knows Alexander will also know exactly what North End are getting.

This is a man who will leave no stone unturned in trying to drag them up the table. He lives and breathes football.

I remember spending some time in his company during the London 2012 Olympics and asking him which sports he was enjoying.

His response? “I’m only interested in football.”

That sums him up rather nicely.

Do not expect Alexander to be the sort of fist-pumping manager racing towards the Alan Kelly Town End after matchday one.

That is not him.

He goes about his business differently. His view has always been that he had his time on the pitch. Now it is about the players who are out there wearing the shirt.

I would not expect him to walk through the door knowing absolutely everything about every member of this North End squad. But you can guarantee he will have done his homework.

And he will not need long to identify the biggest problem.

His Bradford side have conceded only four league goals this season. Preston North End have conceded 15, despite playing just one game more.

For a man who spent the vast majority of his Deepdale career as a defender, that will hurt.

Alexander was part of a North End side that made clean sheets almost routine in 2005-06. That defensive resilience gave them a platform to challenge at the right end of the Championship.

That is surely where the rebuilding job starts.

North End have kept only three clean sheets in 2026 and none since early February.

For a club with ambitions of achieving anything in the Championship, that simply is not good enough.

There will be bigger questions further down the line. But first things first.

Make them difficult to beat. Restore some belief. Get Deepdale back on side. Start moving up the table.

For Graham Alexander, this might just be the job he has always wanted.

The romantic part is over. Now the hard work really begins.