WALES boss Mark Hughes has been linked to the vacant managerial post at Division One side Preston North End.

Hughes is still considering his playing future with his contract at Blackburn Rovers due to expire this summer but the Football Association of Wales want Hughes to hang up his boots and concentrate his efforts fully on managing the national team.

So, the likelihood of Hughes joining the Deepdale club is very slim.

Meanwhile, former Wales chief Bobby Gould has been touted in a long list of names to join Preston - and also his ex-club Bristol Rovers.

Gould, who was replaced on the international platform by Hughes, has been amongst possible candidates to return to the Memorial Ground and Deepdale.

Gould has been in the frame to return to management, following the sacking of Pirates manager Garry Thompson and Preston boss David Moyes joining Everton last month.

But Gould, who was replaced at Bristol Rovers by Gerry Francis in 1987 following two seasons at the club, pointed to Ray Graydon, who was axed as Walsall boss earlier this year, as the leading candidate at the Memorial.

Gould has been linked with a surprise appointment at Preston this summer but, in the meantime, North End have put Kelham O'Hanlon in temporary charge.

Lilywhites chairman Derek Shaw says O'Hanlon is doing a good job, alongside coach Jimmy Lumsden - but the board are set to discuss the managerial issue in the summer. And it has been revealed that 40 applicants, which have been slashed down to five, have put their names into the hat for the Preston job.

Along with Gould and Hughes, Bryan Robson, Joe Royle, Peter Taylor, Sammy McIlroy and John Barnes, are the leading candidates.

"We have got quite a lot of CVs and the board will discuss them in due course," said Shaw.