The Squad for 2019/20

I never quite understand the criticism that Hope gets. He has limitations and inconsistencies like all players in League Two do and had to drop down to this level because he wasn't ready to play higher. At 25 and after having a hand in 20+ goals last season, it's hardly a surprise that better teams than Carlisle are now interested in him.

For context, Charlie Wyke scored 32 in 64 starts and Hope has scored 23 in 68 since signing permanently. Not dissimilar records and Hope has played the majority as a left-winger or left of a front three. If and when he does leave, I really hope we find another 'inconsistent' striker who scores and assists as many as he does, but it's almost certain that we won't.

I wasn't exactly excited when Curle brought him in and I wasn't a Curle fan either, but credit where it's due to both him and Hope.

You know they will sell for 25k tops spread over 3 years...you know the drill by now.

He obviously thinks he's better than he is because we know that although he scores goals and gets assists he's not consistent enough for league 1. His agents has probably put his many tap ins and deflected worldies and sent them around.

lummy8 wrote: What the club terms as "a very good offer" doesn't necessarily mean the player, staff, agent think its a good offer, but this happens in every club.

Right back to my day, the club will offer you what they think is an appropriate deal, players will agree or disagree.

I do feel a bit for footballing staff and players, the budget is obviously being cut again, so what can they do but offer lower contracts. The annoying thing is why did it all have to come to this, but we all seen it coming.

Curle should not be getting any stick for spending big, neither should Kav, their signings can be questioned and picked at, but every manager would spend what they can.

We would never have got Adams, Devitt, Wyke, Kennedy etc if the bonus/incentive scheme was not put in place by Curle, the board could have said no, christ we were getting to the point where directors were happy for an opposition equaliser!

I think DH is in the firing line at the min, but what can he actually do if his bosses are telling him he cant spend this or offer that.

Chris - sorry to disagree, but Curle has to be the biggest (but not only) culprit here.
He clearly convinced the owners that, with his major signings you list, he could get the club up.
Once they backed him and provided him with the tools they did, it was his responsibility to get the club up.
What I don't get is who agreed that the improved performance would lead to increased crowds to fund the massive bonus scheme, or who fell for Curly Keith's bullshit.
On current issues, it is difficult to see how we can have 3 Director of Footballs (Nixon, who did it for nicks, and NC and DH who must be trousering £150K a year between them). Three decent players that.

At least Keith had a plan even if it was slightly flawed. I'm not sure Pressley and Holdsworth can say the same.

Steve Patt was though once!

It keeps being mentioned how Keith Curle spent all this money but failed to win us promotion.

I really think that if Charlie Wyke hadn’t been sold when he was that we would have gone up during his reign.

Wyke was banging the goals in and his valuation would have only gone up.

But typical of our board, first sign of selling a player for any kind of money and we snap their hands off.

So Curle actually recouped some of the money spent through finding a gem like Wyke, but then the money got wasted later on the desperate but failed attempts to replace him.

Look at this article by our club about Hallam Hope on our official site now. What does it actually say? What does it actually tell us? Or more importantly what does it tell other clubs? Reading between the lines it basically says , make us an offer of a couple of grand and our top goal scorer is yours. Same old story.

Yep, I read that Hallam Hope article as a For Sale advert.

Pity they aren’t so proactive when it comes to trying to sell the club.

crunchblue wrote: Yep, I read that Hallam Hope article as a For Sale advert.

Pity they aren’t so proactive when it comes to trying to sell the club.

Of course they are trying to sell it, Patt even offered to put it in the paper once...

CCU wrote: Nigel Clibbens has never been a Director of Football though?

CCU - okay porrly worded, but is his role (whatever it exactly is) not the same as NC is doing, and DH doing.
Or, at the very least, would anyone notice if he was not here.

"porrly worded" is poorly worded.

thefoot wrote: It keeps being mentioned how Keith Curle spent all this money but failed to win us promotion.

I really think that if Charlie Wyke hadn’t been sold when he was that we would have gone up during his reign.

Wyke was banging the goals in and his valuation would have only gone up.

But typical of our board, first sign of selling a player for any kind of money and we snap their hands off.

So Curle actually recouped some of the money spent through finding a gem like Wyke, but then the money got wasted later on the desperate but failed attempts to replace him.

Look at this article by our club about Hallam Hope on our official site now. What does it actually say? What does it actually tell us? Or more importantly what does it tell other clubs? Reading between the lines it basically says , make us an offer of a couple of grand and our top goal scorer is yours. Same old story.

Come on the foot....you know very well the club had no choice but to sell Wyke...his contract made sure of that

Not saying they dont see the ££££££££ signs but we are a selling club, always have been.......to survive. Sad but true

I don't mind selling players but we seem to give them away. The likes of Potts, Dempsey & Wyke.

Meanwhile Accrington and Exeter are selling them for £800k/£1m

Might be a selling club but with our present policy of filling the team with loanees we ain't got anything to sell.

CarlisleWhite wrote:

lummy8 wrote: What the club terms as "a very good offer" doesn't necessarily mean the player, staff, agent think its a good offer, but this happens in every club.

Right back to my day, the club will offer you what they think is an appropriate deal, players will agree or disagree.

I do feel a bit for footballing staff and players, the budget is obviously being cut again, so what can they do but offer lower contracts. The annoying thing is why did it all have to come to this, but we all seen it coming.

Curle should not be getting any stick for spending big, neither should Kav, their signings can be questioned and picked at, but every manager would spend what they can.

We would never have got Adams, Devitt, Wyke, Kennedy etc if the bonus/incentive scheme was not put in place by Curle, the board could have said no, christ we were getting to the point where directors were happy for an opposition equaliser!

I think DH is in the firing line at the min, but what can he actually do if his bosses are telling him he cant spend this or offer that.

Chris - sorry to disagree, but Curle has to be the biggest (but not only) culprit here.
He clearly convinced the owners that, with his major signings you list, he could get the club up.
Once they backed him and provided him with the tools they did, it was his responsibility to get the club up.
What I don't get is who agreed that the improved performance would lead to increased crowds to fund the massive bonus scheme, or who fell for Curly Keith's bullshit.
On current issues, it is difficult to see how we can have 3 Director of Footballs (Nixon, who did it for nicks, and NC and DH who must be trousering £150K a year between them). Three decent players that.

No probs, all opinions isn’t it.
I think Curle done well to get the budget he wanted, but yeah prob should have got us up, but Wyke was a factor. But again, the hierarchy agreed to it so they can’t keep using Curle as an excuse.

John Nixon handled the contracts when I was there, Nigel Clibbins handled them last year. Going on his interview he has basically admitted he didn’t have the football know how to do this role.

lummy8 wrote:

CarlisleWhite wrote:

lummy8 wrote: What the club terms as "a very good offer" doesn't necessarily mean the player, staff, agent think its a good offer, but this happens in every club.

Right back to my day, the club will offer you what they think is an appropriate deal, players will agree or disagree.

I do feel a bit for footballing staff and players, the budget is obviously being cut again, so what can they do but offer lower contracts. The annoying thing is why did it all have to come to this, but we all seen it coming.

Curle should not be getting any stick for spending big, neither should Kav, their signings can be questioned and picked at, but every manager would spend what they can.

We would never have got Adams, Devitt, Wyke, Kennedy etc if the bonus/incentive scheme was not put in place by Curle, the board could have said no, christ we were getting to the point where directors were happy for an opposition equaliser!

I think DH is in the firing line at the min, but what can he actually do if his bosses are telling him he cant spend this or offer that.

Chris - sorry to disagree, but Curle has to be the biggest (but not only) culprit here.
He clearly convinced the owners that, with his major signings you list, he could get the club up.
Once they backed him and provided him with the tools they did, it was his responsibility to get the club up.
What I don't get is who agreed that the improved performance would lead to increased crowds to fund the massive bonus scheme, or who fell for Curly Keith's bullshit.
On current issues, it is difficult to see how we can have 3 Director of Footballs (Nixon, who did it for nicks, and NC and DH who must be trousering £150K a year between them). Three decent players that.

No probs, all opinions isn’t it.
I think Curle done well to get the budget he wanted, but yeah prob should have got us up, but Wyke was a factor. But again, the hierarchy agreed to it so they can’t keep using Curle as an excuse.

John Nixon handled the contracts when I was there, Nigel Clibbins handled them last year. Going on his interview he has basically admitted he didn’t have the football know how to do this role.

Shocking isn't it - But as always is free from any blame and instead, Curle gets it all!

lummy8 wrote: John Nixon handled the contracts when I was there, Nigel Clibbins handled them last year. Going on his interview he has basically admitted he didn’t have the football know how to do this role.

Clibbins or Nixon's interview?

ParcelPete wrote: "porrly worded" is poorly worded.

Can we not have a spell checker on here.

OK - Can we not have a spell checker on here?

Clibbens, official site says they did not have enough football know how, NC negotiated contracts with Adams, Joyce etc last year regarding renewals.

That is like hiring a carpet fitter who has never done it before.

The whole situation makes a bit more sense now though.

Keith spent loads, Clibbens and the board sanctioned it and then when Keith leaves and Holdsworth steps in he cannot really rip into Clibbens as he is still at the club so the scapegoat was always going to be the already departed Keith Curle.

A bit like if my young lad wanted an expensive new bike and he went to his Mam and she went and bought it, I then see my bank balance and go mad at my little boy for buying it when in reality it was his Mam so I am having a go at the wrong person as my lad didn't have any access to the purse strings.

This is how transparent Holdsworth is.

munchymagic wrote: The whole situation makes a bit more sense now though.

Keith spent loads, Clibbens and the board sanctioned it and then when Keith leaves and Holdsworth steps in he cannot really rip into Clibbens as he is still at the club so the scapegoat was always going to be the already departed Keith Curle.

A bit like if my young lad wanted an expensive new bike and he went to his Mam and she went and bought it, I then see my bank balance and go mad at my little boy for buying it when in reality it was his Mam so I am having a go at the wrong person as my lad didn't have any access to the purse strings.

This is how transparent Holdsworth is.

Pretty much. If they didn't want Curle spending that money then aren't they at fault for authorizing it.

Spare a thought for Notts County and Chesterfield as they were spending the amounts that should be getting you automatic promotion yet went out of the league.

Then you have the likes of Mansfield and ourselves when we were spending with Curle, we were always in the mix at the right end of the table but never managed it, Lincoln finally got it right last season as they were another throwing cash at it.

I wonder what happened to the mystery striker who we offered a contract to.

"TRANSFER NEWS | The club can confirm that Ashton Taylor is coming back to Pittodrie for a second spell, having put pen to paper on a two-year deal"

The two year deal bit probably explains why we didn't sign him.

Players can takes a couple of weeks to make a decision somtimes , it's a waiting game.

He'll be getting treatment for the ribs he cracked laughing at our derisory offer

Strange move that for Ash Taylor considering the rumours last time he was there the manager was supposed to be having it away with his wife!

I wondered whether hope would go to Northampton. Curle had a hard on for him since forever. Will be interesting to watch. Holdsworth negotiating with the man whose profligacy he was brought in to temper.

Looks like Devitt and Hope on thier way out.Dont think we have any sellable players left .Just like last year , just about a clean sweep and start again. Looks like no money to buy players ,on a reduced budget ,very little comming from development,offering only one year deals ,relying heavily on the loan market.At least we have a manager in place this year.Its quite depressing Beijing a Carlisle fan at the moment,is there any good news going to come out of the club?

seabird wrote: Its quite depressing Beijing a Carlisle fan at the moment,is there any good news going to come out of the club?

Let's hope someone has been Peking over Holdsworth's shoulder at some exciting transfer targets.

seabird wrote: Looks like Devitt and Hope on thier way out.Dont think we have any sellable players left .Just like last year , just about a clean sweep and start again. Looks like no money to buy players ,on a reduced budget ,very little comming from development,offering only one year deals ,relying heavily on the loan market.At least we have a manager in place this year.Its quite depressing Beijing a Carlisle fan at the moment,is there any good news going to come out of the club?

They have just replaced the China in the boardroom.

I don't have a problem with the club deciding which way it wants to go in terms of contract offers and one years deals and working to a reduced budget. What defines whether an offer to a player is a good one at the end of the day is whether they accept it or not. If the club is offering less money and one year deals and this fails to bring in the players we need then they will need to accept responsibility for that and we will have to rely on the managers expertise in playing the loan market and in bringing in players who haven't managed to get a better deal elsewhere.

If Pressley can get us into play offs or better on that basis he will have earned his corn.

However with the club going down this route what they can't do is talk about ambition and ambitious targets without looking and sounding like tits and this is a hard strategy to sell to a floating support base who want money spent to guarantee success, promotion and good football to watch. They can also keep the mock outrage that players aren't responding to offers - in football the market decides.

EWM really do need to piss or get off the pot in my view - they're either running the club or they aren't - if they are they should commit and give it a go. If they aren't I'd rather they'd bugger off and what will be will be. Philip Day is coming across as a reluctant custodian and we have a few of those already - don't need another one, especially one worth £1.2bn quid who seems to have very short arms and long pockets.

You're either in or you're not - we don't need a fence sitter maintaining a very long decline in the clubs fortunes.

heilkmoon wrote:

seabird wrote: Its quite depressing Beijing a Carlisle fan at the moment,is there any good news going to come out of the club?

Let's hope someone has been Peking over Holdsworth's shoulder at some exciting transfer targets.

Lose a player then 30 minutes later you are ready to lose another

Bit early for doom and gloom! Tranmere are still paying Cole Stockton, they signed George Waring, and they still got promoted. Time for us yet strikers

Great post Moylesey.

I am in the same boat as you now, the contract offers and rearranging of staff is obviously down to budget constraints. We all seen it coming, we all knew it was going to come to this, but when PD jumped in we all thought there would be more to it than helping the board out. He has instructed DH to offer these contracts and rearrange the staff, no way would AJ get rid of Edmo, no way.

As you say I will get behind them and leave them to it, but do not say we are ambitious and want the Championship etc because we clearly do not, you can hope to be, but there is not a determination to be there.. And when they go on about crowds dipping etc, they can all have a good long hard look at themselves now.

I am quite pleased the decisions and contract offers have been made by the "new regime", at least there is accountability and they can not blame anyone else this season.

That's me taking a break anyway ladies and gents, a few I know will be pleased , but its all getting a bit soul destroying at the min with news that filters to us out of the club, so time to have a break and come back enthusiastic when we have some new signings hopefully or good news.

I don' think PD has the amount of money that a lot on here claim he has.
The clothing retail sector is under severe pressure these days.
Philip Green's Arcadia group could go into administration later today.
Anytime I have been past Edinburgh Woollen Mill, the place has looked empty.

Wukkie wrote: Strange move that for Ash Taylor considering the rumours last time he was there the manager was supposed to be having it away with his wife!

Maybe he's into that kind of thing.

Flatcap wrote: I don' think PD has the amount of money that a lot on here claim he has.
The clothing retail sector is under severe pressure these days.
Philip Green's Arcadia group could go into administration later today.
Anytime I have been past Edinburgh Woollen Mill, the place has looked empty.

Don't suppose Day's personal wealth these days is index linked to the number of pensioners shopping for grey fleeces.

But it always surprises me how successful EWM has been as a business, remember it as being one of the boring shops I hated being dragged into by my parents 30 odd years ago along with Littlewoods. Even today as a middle aged parent myself it's still too boring for me.

Alan Nixon has tweeted about updates on transfers with named clubs....Carlisle being 1 of them, tomorrow (Sunday 09/06/19). Hope it's some good news.

Matt green just left Salford would happily have him here

Devitt to Swindon. Announcement in nxt couple of days.

There is no incentive to go and watch the club, like others have said EWM need to show there hand as the club is stale infact its depressing, it would be great to see a group of local business men try and take it over and have some forward thinking ideas and just be honest with fans, show a bit of ambition and that would make a hell of a difference I would even copy Darlington's idea and raise money through the fans, granted we have to get on a level footing but how much money are Carlisle missing with Non advertising of any corporate activity's or special deals you never see anything its horrific!! granted the facilities are probably one of the worst in the league's but surely money should be set aside to develop part of the ground to encourage people to come and at least enjoy a game of football!

darlingtonfc.co.uk/news/boost-the-budget-1920-we-go-again

Just checked and Darlington fans have raised a 103k so far hats of to them for that, if only we had a supporters club that associated and sided with the fans instead of been puppets to the Muppets!!

No incentive to go? How do you know how good the new guys will be if you don't go. The more people that go the more cash for elvis. Get down the ground!

I wish I had your confidence in the recruitment policy to me it ain't working. We don't seem to be able to hold on to what few players we have