PRESTON North End were last night closing in on winger Iain Anderson after French club Toulouse backed down on demands for a £700,000 transfer fee.

Sources inside the club say Anderson spent yesterday (Wednesday, July 5) at Deepdale thrashing out a deal which will take him to Deepdale permanently.

North End are now optimistic they will finally sign him -- possibly by the end of the week and for considerably less than almost three-quarters of a million pounds.

Preston have been trying to sign Anderson since the end of the season after he completed a highly-successful loan spell at Deepdale, playing an instrumental role in the club's promotion campaign.

But they have been thwarted by a stubborn board of directors in Toulouse, who demanded £700,000 for the highly-rated Scottish winger.

Dundee, Anderson's previous club, also want a chunk of the fee because he would be moving back to Britain less than a year after leaving, thus voiding any previous Bosman deal which took him to France in the first place.

Anderson has always said he wanted to play for Preston

He said: "North End are a big club with a big future thanks to their big ambitions.

"They are going places and I want to be going with them."