United boss Steven Pressley has confirmed that a possible deal which will see midfielder Liam McCarron leave the Blues is at an advanced stage with a number of clubs having thrown their hat in the ring for the highly-rated teenager.
McCarron became hot property last season when he made four starts in his 16 appearances for the Blues with scouts flocking to Brunton Park to see what the fuss was about.
“The club are in quite progressed talks with several clubs,” he confirmed. “It’s quite far down the line and it’s something the board and David Holdsworth have been discussing.
“The one thing I’ll stress is that the club will not sell any player unless the right bid comes in, but I believe they are quite far down the line with that. It looks like something might happen there quite imminently.
“My opinion is that the likelihood is that Liam will be leaving us if we can get to the level we need to see. I know people will look at whether we could bring him back on loan, but I think they’ll want to take him and have him now.
“One of the other avenues is that it may open a door for us to take one of their players. We’re looking at that and we’re assessing a few of the players within their group who we would consider bringing in.”
“Look, it isn’t ideal, because you know how passionate I am about the development of young players,” he commented. “But the unfortunate thing with the way the market is at the moment is that it’s absolutely no gamble for these bigger clubs to take these boys.
“It’s a drop in the ocean to these clubs, and this is the sad things for clubs like Carlisle. That’s why we want to get to the point where we can say ‘we don’t need to do this, our players stay here because we’re building our team.’
“We aren’t there yet, but that’s where we want to be.”
With interest also being declared in 16-year-old defender Jarrad Branthwaite, the manager hinted that he was feeling more optimistic on that front.
“With Jarrad, I would certainly hope we’ll be keeping him for a longer period,” he said. “That’s my hope on a player like that.
“Liam has been faced with an opportunity he probably doesn’t want to turn down, but I would hope we’ll be keeping Jarrad.”
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