United keeper joins Cumbrians
Carlisle United have today signed Manchester United keeper Ben Amos on a one month loan deal which keeps him at Brunton Park until 14 December 2013.
Amos, 23, has been capped by England at youth and U21 level and gained Championship experience with a six-month loan at Hull City in 2012.
He joined the Red Devils at the age of 11 and signed Academy forms at Old Trafford in 2006. He worked hard and was rewarded with two appearances for the first team during the 2008/09 pre-season campaign.
Amos made his full debut for United against Middlesbrough in the Carling Cup competition in September 2008. He has enjoyed loan spells with Peterborough, Molde and Oldham and made his Premier League debut in a 2-0 victory over Stoke City in January 2012.
“We obviously had the injury to Mark [Gillespie] last weekend and that meant we needed to bring another body in to help to cover that position,” manager Graham Kavanagh said. “As soon as it became apparent that he would be missing for a period of time we knew it was something we had to deal with urgently. We already had three or four names on a list, for situations such as this, and we feel this will be a good one for us.”
“Tony Caig made quite a few phone calls to get things sorted out and, as usual, Manchester United have been fantastic with us. They wanted him to come to us and play because he hasn’t had games recently. They think very highly of him, so this fits perfectly with what they want for him at the moment.”
“He won’t be able to play in the FA Cup games but he will be eligible for our league games,” he explained. “I’ve seen him quite a few times over the years, because we do get to a number of their U21 games, and he’s a good, all-round keeper. He wouldn’t be at that club if he wasn’t.
“He’s had a number of loans so he also has plenty of first team experience. We’ve spoken to him at length and he is desperate to play. He wants to be in a first team environment and he’s looking forward to being under that little bit of pressure where results really matter again. Everything points to the fact that this should be a good one for us.”
And on the relationship with Manchester United, he said: “I think it’s something which started with Greg [Abbott] when we first brought James Chester in. Sir Alex Ferguson phoned Greg right at the start of that deal and told him to treat James as if he was our player. However, he wanted a weekly report on things like his attitude, his energy levels, his performance and how he conducted himself as a person.
“We did that for Sir Alex and it showed that we were prepared to look after his players in the correct manner. That built up a level of trust and it has definitely made situations like this easier.”
“The most important thing about this move is that it brings competition in a vital area,” he agreed. “I thought Greg [Fleming] was really good the other night, but I wanted to get someone alongside him with a bit of experience to make sure that everyone stays on their toes. The competition starts as soon as Ben comes in for training today and, whatever happens for Saturday, Greg will have another chance to perform on Tuesday night.
“We’ll see how they both react today and we’ll go forward from there. As always with your keepers, they should enjoy working with each other and they’ll both try their best to be the one who gets the nod.”
