Thompson has been reunited with his mate and former Leicester team mate Simon Grayson at Deepdale and the pair will renew the partnership they previously had at Blackpool.
He joined Blackpool in 2005 as the head of the youth department but was quickly moved up to join the first team coaching staff when Grayson became manager and he continued in that role until a season and a half, including a year working with Ian Holloway in the Premier League, until he was sacked alongside Paul Ince and his staff midway through the 2013/14 season.
Twice he was caretaker manager, firstly when Holloway left and then when Holloway's successor Michael Appleton quickly jumped ship to go to Blackburn. Both times Thompson expressed his desire to become manager but both times he was overlooked.
Having left Bloomfield Road, he joined Huddersfield last summer as assistant manager and continued that role under their current manager Chris Powell, but a call from Neil Redfearn saw him move to Leeds last December as their assistant manager and he received much of the credit for their improvement in form.
He was bizarrely sacked in April by sporting director Nicola Salerno for no apparent reason other than Salerno didn't appear to like him, and until yesterday remained out of the game.
He's now been appointed, with immediate effect, as first team coach at Deepdale and he said of the opportunity to work with Grayson again: "We have just got a good relationship. I'm not a 'yes man'. He respects my opinion and hopefully we can be good together again."
Thompson was signed by Jimmy Mullen in 1995 and made his debut in a 4-1 defeat at Tranmere but things soured for him under Adrian Heath who released him at the end of the 1996/97 season.