United boss Paul Simpson put pen-to-paper on a three-year deal with the club on Wednesday night and he spoke afterwards about his delight at having got the finer details sorted out.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” he said. “The first thing was to guarantee our safety, and we did that on Easter Monday.
“I’m really pleased that the directors have listened and they’re willing to understand that things need ton be done differently, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge.
“I was pleased to be asked to come back here and I’ve enjoyed it a lot, and I’ve learned a heck of a lot about the club and about myself.
“It is going to be a challenge, but one thing I’ve learned over my time in this game is that nothing comes easy. You’ve got to work hard, you’ve got to be committed, and I want everybody now to be totally committed to trying to take this club forward.”
The length of the contract appears to be an indication of a longer-term project, rather than a sticking plaster or a quick fix approach.
“I didn’t ask for three years, it was the club who told me that was what were doing,” he explained. “I’m happy to take that.
“I’m more than happy to throw myself into it, myself and Jacqui are going to move up to Carlisle and we’ll be giving it everything. We’re going to bring our life back to the city and I want everybody to join in.
“This is not going to happen overnight – I’ll be delighted if it does, and I’m going into next season wanting to win as many games as we can, but I’m under no illusions that it’s going to be easy.
“This is going to be a really tough task, every job is a tough job in this industry, and I’m not just saying that this is a tough one just to buy myself some time.
“I’m saying it because I genuinely believe this is going to take a real change of organisation and of mentality, inside and outside the football club.
“It’s up to us to bring something to the Carlisle and Cumbrian people to encourage them to come in and help us. I just appeal to them to come back, get on the ride with us now, and hopefully we can all have a good time together.”
Touching more on the need to get the backing of the local and business communities, he added: “Without a doubt, we have to do it.
“Let’s be honest, this football club isn’t going to survive on a wealthy owner who chucks his petty cash in. We’re not in that position and not many at our level are.
“We need local business and people to come and support us. Come through the turnstiles, spend your money in the shop, buy your tickets, all of that’s sort of stuff.
“Come and have a dinner in hospitality and your drinks in the bars, it’s everything that goes with running a football club.
“I know it sounds like I’m begging and I’ve got a begging bowl out, I’m not. All I’m saying is come and give us a chance by giving us some support. If we all pull together we’ve got some better times to look forward to.”
The manager had spoken quite openly over the last few weeks about things needing to be right before he would commit to the project, so we wondered what had happened during the talks to tick the boxes.
“I don’t think it was any one thin in particular,” he told us. “Listen, I don’t have all the answers, but I do have an idea about what gives you a chance to get a football club right.
“I made the suggestion to the board, and to Nigel Clibbens, and I sat and talked to them about how I see things being organised.
“The most important thing in any club is getting the recruitment right. You have to get the right players through the door.
“I’ve talked about putting a recruitment plan in place. I haven’t got the people in those roles yet, but we’ve got a budget which they’re adding to what has been spent before.
“That will allow us to put some sort of structure in place. It makes it really difficult, we’re in this first transfer window of my return and we have no database of players we’ve looked at or who have been watched.
“That means we’re starting behind everybody else. That doesn’t worry me, but what I’m saying is that this is going to take a little bit of time to get the structure in place. We’ve got to be prepared to build it and build it to take us further forward.
“If we can do that then hopefully we’re not scrapping around in the bottom places for the next few seasons.”
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