Collins who signed on loan for Preston at the start oflast season by Alan Irvine was set to be a replacement for Sean St Ledger who was set to join Middlesborough. In all honesty I don't know if St Ledger did some other manual tasks around the club but Collins was certainly no replacement centre back.
After suspectly leaking copious amounts of goals onnumerous occassions it was announced that despite St Ledger returning from Middlesborough, an agreement had been reached for Collins to sign permanently with a formal contract signed in January.
Ferguson was in charge and could obviously see what the rest of us all knew and Collins was quickly loaned out to Leeds where he had a moderately successful end to the season. Grayson souhgt out the centre back for his new Championship squad and an undisclosed fee has been agreed between the clubs with Collins signing for Leeds on a three year contract.
This departure now frees up more space on the wage bill and Preston are expected to make yet more signings before the season kicks off in a months time.