The midfielder who was transfer listed at the end of last season and currently training with the youth team has not featured for Preston throughout pre-season. In fairness Carter has put himself out there and had trials at Millwall and Southampton.
Carter surprisingly featured for Southampton last week in a friendly against Barnet. Pardew wanted to open talks with the midfielder and it appears that is as far as things went. Nothing was heard since and Carter returned to Preston on Friday despite rumours on the south coast that he would feature against Reading in their pre-season game.
It seems that once again the wages were a problem. As with Jackett at Millwall, Pardew was impressed by Carter but it seems even a loan deal could not be struck up for the midfielder who has a year left on his contract at Deepdale.
With such a small first team squad Darren Ferguson has now got Carter, Chaplow, Elliott and Trotman training with the youth team and this may well prove costly not only financially but in terms of team performance and morale on the pitch.