With the transfer window now firmly shut we caught up with manager Chris Beech at his weekly press conference to get his thoughts on what had been a busy few days.
“The final day, it's a day that comes at you really quickly,” he said. “It wasn’t ideal what happened with George leaving and getting information on that confirmed Sunday.
“I think it did in retrospect affect him on the Saturday, that’s one of the worst performances I’ve seen him play, that’s what happens when you get your head turned.
“It gave us 36-hours or so to try and solve an issue there. We knew we needed a little bit more anyway.
“We had a lot of irons in a lot of fires but as the day turns out, in and up, a lot of Premier League teams that you have possible loans from decide they’re going to keep their players, or it may be that they go somewhere else.
“There are always different twists which are difficult to stay in front of. Unless they’re your players you’re not in control of that.”
And on the squad that has continued to work hard through the month of August, he added: “I’m very happy with the squad, the work ethic and the opportunity of growth within it.
“Seeing Manasse Mampala score his first goal, Taylor Charters score his first goal. I think we’ve got to step back sometimes and appreciate what we have and what we do.
“I know it’s hard sometimes for supporters to hear, I’d love to be on the entre circle sat at a desk with somebody like Gary Madine stood behind me and we’ve just paid £350,000 for him and he’s on £6k a week, everybody’s happy.
“It’s not happening. We are where we are. This time last year people like Jack Armer hadn’t played a first team game. We’ve got a striker in Tristan Abrahams who has scored three goals in his first month of work – that’s good.
“If he can repeat that eight times you’re probably talking about the golden boot. We’ve got to make sure we stay on plan, stay focused, and understand we have lost a game, we didn’t like losing it, and we lost one goal. Our group of players have the potential to get better at what we’re doing, that’s great.”
Aside the transfer window, as ever, is the possibility of acquiring free agents between now and the January opening.
“You just don’t know what’s round the corner in football,” he commented. “I’m just very proud of the work I’ve done since I’ve come, the players who’ve followed me, the differences we’ve had to deal with to represent all of our thoughts.
“I understand the past, I wasn’t here, the good times, the poorer times, the times where they had a real good go. Three or four years ago we were paying unbelievable wages, bigger than what we did at League One Rochdale.
“We’d often lose out to players that signed for Carlisle in League Two because of what was going on financially at that point. That’s cost. Where we are now, it is what it is.
“I have to get on with it to the best of my ability, and have supporters support us and the team within what we’re doing. I’d be very proud if I was a supporter of the players.
“Like I’ve mentioned before, about the lads, the way we deal with the community to the best of our ability, the way the lads donated food and things like that – it wasn’t like that when I walked in. They wouldn’t even wash the pots when they’d had their dinner. It’s so different.
“We’ve got to make sure we carry on in that. The frustrations that come out in different people, the articles you might write to stimulate difference, yeah, I have a good understanding but I’m in charge of where we are and what we are now.
“If I was a supporter I’d be very attached to those people because they are giving everything and they’re doing a real lot on and off the pitch.
“We bring it back to our value, our stocks and shares, you’re judged on three points and we want three points, because we love sharing that with everyone, and when we get that it means miles more, because we know it’s come from a great place.”
“Bringing new players into that isn’t hard, and once they’re here they absolutely love it,” he told us. “What is hard is when you have players going, because you’ve got relationship formed over time, card schools, experiences.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love what we do, I love my job and how we do it, but there are times when it is also very difficult for the players, whether it’s extreme circumstance, a training ground 12 feet under water, -10 conditions, whatever it might be.
“But we get on with it and we’re great lads, we really are. But you’re only valued in what you do on a Saturday on the pitch. It causes discrepance because they’ve bonded and know what I want, know how I want to try and do it and get better in it, and they’re losing fragments of that.
“It’s important the right characters come in. I know Kelvin, Jordan and a young lad in Jonathan are really going to enjoy being part of this. They might not think so immediately, especially Jonathan coming out of London at short notice like that, on a train to Carlisle and suddenly he’s in the situation he’s in, as Brad was only two weeks ago,
“It’s big for them, but it is where we are. I want to make sure whoever we get represents us, and I think they will.”
