Following the end of the season last weekend, manager Paul Simpson confirmed player recruitment work had already started ahead of the new campaign.
“We’re still haggling over things, and it is very, very early,” he told us. “Carlisle United fans might not want to listen to this, but attracting players here is still difficult. We are in a better position financially and we have got a vision that we can sell to players which we haven’t had before, but they still want to wait and see if there are other things out there for them.
“We’ll keep working and asking questions, and also be prepared that people might say no to us, but we’ll keep negotiating to get players in who are going to make us better.
“I’ve got a really clear idea on the recruitment I want us to do. The truth is, it’s right through the squad, it all needs strengthening. We have been weak in a lot of areas, so I can’t put a definite number on it, but it has to be within the limit of what we’re allowed to register. I think it’s only Gabe [Breeze] and Jack [Ellis] who are U21 and don’t count towards the quota.
“I’m really clear about positions and where we need strengthening, but also the type of people we want. The bigger thing for me is that we need some strong characters and personalities to come in to try and change the momentum. If we’ve got strong characters and good professionals, that will help to give us a fighting chance.”
“Character is a big thing and it’s really hard to gauge that character,” he admitted. “We’re getting character references about the players we’re enquiring about. All of us, myself, Gav, Billy and Greg have a lot of people who we know in football who we can get those from.
“That’s a big part of the enquiries we’re making at the moment. We want to know what type of person they are and what they’re like when things aren’t going well. We’re also looking at whether they’ve had previous experience of promotion, and I want to know whether they’re prepared to relocate.
“We want players who are prepared to move their family here, rather than just having intermittent stays in the area. Too many times last season we’ve had groups of players stuck on the M6 because they were driving up before training. I don’t think that’s being the best professional you can be.
“I’ve had one period in my career where I travelled, when I went from Derby to Wolves, because of my boys’ involvement at school and things, and I didn’t feel right doing it. I’ve got a big thing about that, I want players to come and say they’re prepared to do it properly. We have houses, and they can stay on a Monday night when we’re training Monday and Tuesday, or stay on Thursday and Friday when we’ve got a home game on a Saturday. I think that is the right thing to do and I want players to be prepared to do that.
“The owners are being fantastic with that, they’re buying properties that we can put the players into and have rentals for them. We are trying to do things to make that right, but it’s part of the character I want to see. I want them to be fully committed to the football club.”
In terms of how we will now recruit players, we wondered whether the data tools we now have available would make it a different process going forward?
“As people know, we’ve now got StatsBomb which means we can put in the information we’re looking for in terms of passes, goals, assists and that type of information,” Simmo explained.
“There are a lot of different criteria you can look at to help identify players. What I will say, it is identifying players, but there are very few we aren’t already aware of. It’s giving us a bit more of a guide to it, rather than watching videos and watching them live. It gives us some background data to back up what we know about the players already. It’s certainly a help, but I don’t believe it’s the only way you should recruit. I think you have to have that, but also references, video reports and live reports. It’s another tool we’ve added to the recruitment side of things.
“I don’t honestly believe we were in a comfort zone with our recruitment but because we’ve now got better funds available, it gives us a wider net to look at anyway. All of the things that have been brought into the club we hope are going to help us.
“Last year, we have to be honest, our recruitment didn’t work how we wanted it to. There are mitigating circumstances to that, the timing and the finances available, and they all played a part to it. We’ve now got some other things to add to the recruitment process, so we hope we can be better in terms of recruitment.”
“The budget brings pressure, because I spend the money as if it’s my own,” he told us. “People can criticise me for that because I don’t just go and spend it, I want to make sure we’re getting the right value. If somebody thinks a player is worth more than I value them at, I’m not prepared to go and waste the club’s money or the Piatak’s money. I want to spend it properly and maximise what we do.
“We had a challenge because we didn’t have a lot of money, and we’ve now got more money which gives us a different challenge. I want to be challenged, my challenge for next season isn’t just about spending the money right, it’s about putting a successful team together. That’s the only thing on my mind.
“I put pressure on myself because I want to be successful, I want to bring something positive to this football club. Whatever it is, whether it’s adding data, more money or better facilities, that’s a pressure I want because I want the club to be better.”
