Carlisle boss Paul Simpson revealed on Tuesday afternoon that a bid was in for a striker as he continues to look to add to his group, with strengthening the forward areas at the forefront of his mind.
With a further update today, he told us: “I can tell you now that the offer has been turned down. The club don’t want to sell him.
“It’s just one of those things, we’ve just got to keep going and looking. We had another one that we were really interested in for a loan move for the season but unfortunately the guy has got two offers on the table from League One clubs that absolutely blow us out of the water in terms of salaries.
“We’re not talking that we gave to go a little bit more on where we’re at, we’re talking we have go double and he’d be the highest paid player at our club. That’s out of the window as well.
“This is the challenge for us because there are so few target man number 9 players out there who clubs are willing to let go, and it’s just really difficult to get them. That’s why we’ve found it to be hard all the way through.
“It hasn’t been down to a lack of trying, or through a lack of the finances that we can afford, it’s just that there are limited numbers around. We’ll keep working away, we’ll try to find the right players.
“There are players we still haven’t been told a definite no on, and this is the same with every position. You have two or three options, maybe even four or five, and you just keep working away until the right one drops.”
So does that mean the deal for player that was the subject of an offer is now dead in the water?
“The loan we were looking at seems to be dead in the water,” he commented. “We’ll keep plugging away with the one we’ve made an offer for, and we’ll see where that gets us. I don’t think it’s totally gone but I also don’t think they’ll budge on it.
“We’ve got until the end of the transfer window, we have a little bit of time, but the truth is that we can only do what we can do. We can’t influence what other people are going to do, we can’t change their decision.
“We’ll keep working away. I was going to say that it isn’t frustrating, but it is. However, it isn’t something we can get screwed up about. We just need to make sure we keep doing the right things.
“You have to remember that we’re working to salary management rules as well. That does add something else to think about because we have to go by those rules, it’s as simple as that.
“We’re not going to do anything silly, but we are trying to strengthen the group. We’ll do everything we possibly can within the rules and within our financial constrictions, but it’s all fine. We’ll be ok, we’ve just got to keep trying to do the right thing.
“This always happens in transfer windows, it’s how it is. When there was no window and you had until March or April, or whenever it was, these sorts of things were going on all the time. It’s only now that there’s a deadline that everybody gets all panicky about it.
“There’s no point panicking, because it isn’t going to change anything. We’ll try to do the right things, hope we get the right players and, if we don’t, we’ve got a good enough squad to keep going. In the ideal world we’d just like a little bit more.”
And as ever in the world of loans and transfers there can be an element of brinksmanship.
“Yes, of course clubs can do that,” he said. “They know what the situations are and if they’ve got the player on their books they’re in a really strong position. They don’t have to do anything.
“It’s one of those where we just keep going, keep talking, making the calls, doing the background work on these players and waiting to see if anything drops.
“The target man role is one of the areas we keep looking at. That’s where you do have to pay money for that type of position. My thinking is we’ve got the small, quick players with Terry Ablade coming in, with Sean Maguire, Dan Butterwoth, and Luke Plange is that quick player who’ll run in behind, not so much a target man.
“In terms of the two bigger ones, we’ve got Ryan Edmondson and Joe Garner. I’m trying to predict that we are going to get injuries at some point, and red cards, because that’s the way officials are doing games at the moment.
“I want to make sure we’ve got different options. For the bulk of the time it will mean some players are not involved, but I need to be covered for as many opportunities so we can to give ourselves the best chance.”
As for the increase in numbers opening the door for some of our players to head out on loan deals the other way, he said: “Possibly, if I believe it’s right for us, but also for the player as well.
“There are players here who I probably would let go out if an opportunity comes for them, but all I can say as I sit here today is that we haven’t had any enquiries about any of our players for that type of thing.
“Until that changes we’ll all carry on working and preparing to be involved whenever they’re called upon. It’s just not what I’m thinking at the moment.
“Nobody has been to tell me they want to leave, in terms of our own players. If that does happen, that may change my way of thinking. The last thing I want to do is keep players who are not happy, and everybody wants to play.
“If that conversation was to go on then I would consider it. But only if it’s right for us. I’m not prepared to let players go who I believe are right for us. Once that window closes next week, if they’re still at the club they need to get their head down, knuckle down and do what’s best for Carlisle United, and by doing that it’ll be doing what’s best for them and we’ll all benefit.
“This is the problem when you have a transfer window, and there’s a closing date. Everybody gets screwed up by this. It does make it really tricky.
“I think it makes it tricky for us when we’re working to a tight budget, because you end up having to spend money on a group of players that are maybe not going to play, whereas in the previous circumstances you could keep budget back and go, you know what, we need somebody next weekend, let’s go and get somebody now.
“It’s just what the transfer window has done. I get why it works at the top end. I personally don’t think it works to the club’s benefit at the lower end. I’m not expecting to do loads of business before the window closes but if something does come about we’ll consider it.
“And with Owen Moxon, we are still talking to him, we’re just trying to see if we can get some sort of agreement put in place. But there’s nothing to report at the moment and there hasn’t been anything coming in for Owen either.”
Two players linked with the Blues across the rumour treadmills have Been John Jules from Arsenal and Armstrong from Harrogate.
“We haven’t spoken about the first one at all,” he confirmed. “I do know Tyreece and have worked with him, but that hasn’t been talked about.
“The second one, we’ve been told that’s way out of our budget. I’m led to believe they’re talking close to half a million for him, and salary wise is way above.
“We like Luke Armstrong. I don’t think you’d need to be a genius to say that Luke Armstrong would be a good signing for Carlisle. But he’s way out of our budget.”