United’s transfer window activity has left the club feeling in a good place, as confirmed by manager Paul Simpson on Tuesday night when he spoke about the strength in depth he now has within the group.
“I’m really happy with the numbers I’ve got,” he said. “When I look around at what’s available, is there anything better than what we’ve got?
“I don’t want to just collect players, because I’ve got three who would be disappointed they weren’t in on Tuesday night, that’s with three more to come into it again hopefully soon.
“Fin Back when he comes into it, that makes seven players altogether, and as much as I want a group together, I don’t want too many disappointed players who are not involved.
“At this moment in time I don’t see the need to do anything more. If somebody calls me and says this player’s available and I go wow, that’s better, we can afford that, I know for a fact the directors are saying to me come and give us a problem, if you want it.
“They’ve been brilliant to me so far, but hopefully I don’t have to do that.”
On whether or not there are funds available to do more business, if required, he commented: “I had an idea, I was aware of it and I thought we were very close [to the budget limit].
“We’ve had to do some wheeling and dealing, and we’ve had to get some brilliant help from other clubs, the likes of Leeds and Middlesbrough, and Palace and Forest, even Stockport, as much as they’re probably disappointed that we’re up there.
“Without other clubs helping us we probably couldn’t do it. With the younger players, we’re hopefully helping develop them for their clubs - hopefully JK will go back a better player, Alfie will go back a better player, Jack Robinson will go back better for the experience.
“We’ve just got to keep everybody right, keep everybody going and hope we can make it a good 20 games to go.”
As ever, it’s inevitable that the question will be asked about players currently playing well who might be the subject of interest from elsewhere.
“There’s two sides to that,” he insisted. “Yes, I want to keep this group together because they’ve done really well, but on the other side of it, we haven’t got multi-millionaires running our club, and everybody has a price, especially at League Two.
“We don’t want them to go, we want to keep them all here, and we’re just going to have to wait and see. I can’t wait for this window to close and stop having to have these questions, I’m being asked is he going to this club, is he going elsewhere.
“It’s not that I’m telling lies, but nobody has called about our players, nobody has come to me, to the best of my knowledge nobody has come to me, to Nigel, to Greg, to the chairman, or Sarah, whoever enquiries would come in for, and I want to keep it that way.”
“If an offer does come, it’s not my football club, if it was, I could say no, it’s not happening, but I understand the realities of Carlisle United in League Two,” he told us. “I can’t say that.
“I would love to be able to say no, I would like to say tonight’s a cut-off. It won’t be my call. I will be on the football side of it but thankfully I don’t have to put the money in to support Carlisle United.
“We have to keep building this club to make it better. For me, the best way to build this club is keep the team out on the pitch that’s winning games of football, that keeps encouraging fans to come in, that will help us to develop, and I hope that’s the case for the rest of the season.”
