Carlisle United Football Club are delighted to announce the arrival of defender Paul Huntington on a one-year deal this afternoon.
Huntington, 34, left Preston North End at the end of last season, having spent 10 years at Deepdale, with manager Paul Simpson revealing that the experienced centre back had been on his radar almost as soon as the last ball had been kicked in May.
“I’m really chuffed that we’ve got this one done,” the gaffer told us. “I’ve made no secret of the fact that I wanted a senior player to come in at the back, and the truth is that this has been a long process to get us to this point.
“I wanted him to be my first signing, if I’m going to be really honest, but I’ve had to be patient. I’ve bided my time and thankfully that’s paid off for us.
“I’m going to give the credit to Paul for getting this one going again because he came to our game against Crawley and, after that, he got back in touch to let us know that he’d loved the atmosphere the fans were creating and he’d liked the way we were playing.
“He said that he really wanted to be part of it and we took it from there. I’m now looking forward to getting him fully up to speed in terms of his match and football fitness. Once we get him there he’ll be out on the grass and hopefully doing a great job for us.”
“We can see he’s been keeping himself fit but we don’t know at this stage when we’ll be able to say that he’s fully match fit,” he added. “I want to see him out on the grass, but we’re thinking at the moment that it could possibly be a couple of weeks.
“We can’t afford to rush it, we’ve got to wait and we may have to be a little bit patient. I might even decide to introduce him slowly and look at 60 minutes in a game, or whatever, because we don’t have that many reserve team games that we can utilise for that.
“I think he’ll benefit from the football training we do anyway because the lads complete that at such a high intensity. He is in good shape, so he has a start on it all, and that comes from him having trained every day over the last few months.
“Once he’s ready I’m looking forward to getting him out there and helping us with what we want to achieve.”
Speaking about the experience he brings to the group, he commented: “It’s not just the experience and knowledge he has, even though that’s good in itself, it’s the whole thing about bringing in players who really want to be here.
“It’s a perfect fit as far as I’m concerned, and I know he feels the same. He lives in the area, he knows the club, and he’s the one who resurrected the chance of this even coming to a successful conclusion.
“He’s seen what the supporters have done, and that shows the value of what our fans can bring to the club in how it looks and feels to people on the outside of it.
“I said last season that I was really encouraged by the way they’d responded, that was one of the major things that made me want to stay, and he’s been at the recent home game and felt it as well.
“And, to be fair, I think we’ve only scratched the surface. I think there’s so much more that we can get from our fans. I’ve experienced that myself in the past, and fingers crossed it’ll keep getting better and better for all of us.”
“In the position he plays it was an area I wanted to strengthen anyway,” he added. “We wanted to do that before the injury situation developed as it did, and this addition gives us more depth in that area.
“Thankfully the directors have backed me, they’ve found that extra little bit for us and that’s allowed us to do it. I can only thank them, but we have to remember that we’re talking about a group of people on that board who desperately want the club to do well.
“They’ve encouraged me to go and get the right players and I truly believe that Paul is the right sort of player to help us move forward.”
Having filled the vacant number 6 shirt, we wondered if there was still room for more additions.
“Paul fills that gap which has been pestering the life out of me, I’ve kept it spare for exactly this type of experienced player,” he said. “I’m really pleased we're here now, and I don’t think I’m going to be able to bring anything else in.
“I think we’re at the limit of what we can get, but we’ve done some really good business in this window. At the end of last season when we had 12 out of contract and the four loan lads returning, I was of the mind that it was too many players to be releasing.
“That’s why I wanted to keep a couple of them, and why some got offers to stay. They chose not to, so it made it a bigger rebuild than I really wanted to have to do, but it’s meant that we’ve brought 10 new faces in, and I’m really pleased with all of them.
“That will probably be it for now, and hopefully we can be a little bit luckier going forward than we have been so far with injuries.”
Huntington left Carlisle as a youngster when he was scouted by a host of clubs when he played for Yewdale Pegasus. He opted for Newcastle, where he progressed through the academy system and into the first-team environment.
Having played top-flight and European football for the Magpies he made the move to Leeds in the summer of 2007, where he enjoyed a loan spell with Stockport before moving on a short-term deal into the Greater Manchester area.
The long move down south to Yeovil in 2010 brought regular football and close to 100 appearances for the Glovers, and he was also handed the captain’s armband with the League One outfit.
He moved to Preston in the summer of 2012, and his ten-year stay turned him into a Deepdale legend, with over 300 appearances for his adopted club.
If you are interested in sponsoring Paul, please email commercial@carlisleunited.co.uk