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Greg Abbott
" I think that Danny Graham is committed, I think that he is passionate about his football. What we have got to do is we have got to understand how the power swings have changed in the game. These players can exhaust their contracts, they can look at the Bosman ruling now and the fact that they can walk away from contracts now-a-days. It makes it a whole lot easier for the players and a whole lot harder for managers and coaches.
" So what we have got to do is, they are the rules, we never set them, the Bosman thing has made the players so much more powerful and we have to work around the back of that. Danny Graham might decide that he wants to stay or he wants to go, I don't know what Danny is thinking at the minute, I don't know what offers are on the table for Danny, only him and his agent know that.
" What we have got to do is, we are like the supporters, we are actually waiting in the background for him to make a decision and then we can move on with whatever decision Danny makes. He can still walk away and the fee would go to a tribunal set by an independent panel, so again it is a similar thing to Bosman except there is a fee involved and it would be a panel decision. It is good for us to have that £250,000 offer from January on the table and logged in the record files in Danny's situation.
" Because we have it in writing and there is no question about that, so it is there and that would have to go to a tribunal, we would say that the contract that he has been offered is a terrific one. We have already had an offer of £250,000 on the table so we wait in hope that if the situation did go down that road that we would be looked after.
" We have got a 20 goal a season man and that is Danny Graham, because over the last two seasons Danny averages over 20 goals, so we have got one. We think as well that Scott Dobie can knock people about and use his pace and his energy and upset defenders. Then you have got the genuine pace with Joe Anyinsah who we think will massively benefit after a really good pre-season knowing that he is going to play. "
" He has been at clubs where he has done his pre-season knowing that he is not going to play. Joe's record of goals was four in eleven games which is a nice start to his career in terms of goals at the football club. If you saw the last game of the season, Scott and Joe put the Millwall defence under a massive amount of pressure with their energy and their pace.
" We have got pace with Joe, we have got height and strength with Gary Madine, pace and height and strength with Scott Dobie and you have got your out-and-out goalscorer with Danny Graham, who averages over 20 goals a season at this football club.
" Selling Simon Hackney is a debate that will rage on. Lewis Neal came in and Lewis provided chances for Danny Graham, I think that Danny did have a fair few chances. Was it the right thing to do to sell Simon or not the right thing, that debate will go on as well. He didn't play so many games for Colchester though when he left this football club as well. So that maybe tells you that Lewis Neal coming in and he played near enough every game while he was here, he scored two or three goals.
" It is a debate that will rage on, Simon is a popular player, he was a terrific player, he moves on to pastures new, he wanted to leave. So that is done and dusted, is it too far to be looking back to think about Simon Hackney. If the texter is saying that Simon is responsible for Danny Graham's demise in goalscoring form then he is entitled to his opinion on that.
" If you look at where we have been in the last couple of weeks at the end of our season when it finished, and other people that we have got at the football club looking in Scotland. The answer is that we are looking there because we think that although we think that the bottom of the Premier League and Scottish League One, there is not a massive amount of players there that would interest us.
" There are certainly sprinkled around some absolute individual diamonds, (Stephen) Dobbie is one and there were two players who I will remain unnamed that we are still chasing that we think will be terrific acquisitions. The cost of them is sometimes cheaper than in England and they want to come to England because we can give them a platform then to go on to bigger and better things, so we are looking in Scotland as well.
Dennis Booth
" They have to be the right players from Scotland, not just there but we are looking all over the country. I go down to London sometimes to look at the reserve teams down in London. Yes it might be difficult to get a player to come up here but we try to cover as much as we possibly can. The scouting system that we have is very good and we need that because we can't go out and spend the big money.
" We need to try to get someone before the big boys come in, it can be possibly a problem with players down South. At the end of the day though, players want to come and they are willing to come to Carlisle from the South of England or so on and they really want to play. It is about playing football, but sometimes it can possibly work against us that can.
" If the right players are there in Scotland though then yes fine, but if they are not then we look elsewhere. We can't just go into Scotland and say that is the nearest place for us, we will go and there are players there. If the players are not there or we don't think that they are there then we just won't do it, but we have got a network up there.
" A couple of weeks ago we were up there watching matches and we will continue to do that. I suppose sometimes though that if you are in the middle of the country it is easier, but unfortunately we are not in the middle of the country. We just have to get on with that and we try to attract the players and if the player doesn't want to come then maybe he is not the player that we want. "
Greg Abbott
" People disagreeing with loan players coming in above Luke Joyce and Grant Smith is opinions, that is opinions. That will be a hindsight one, if Grant and Luke go on to bigger and better things from this football club then we were wrong, if they don't then we were right. I make decisions though that I have to make, some please people, some don't please people.
" I wanted players in there that I thought would do the best that they could for Carlisle United. I don't have players out of the team that I think are better than the ones in the team, I would be a foolish manager if I did. So that is all down to opinions and if that is the texter's opinion then I have no problem with that.
" I take it on board that we might have left Danny Graham in too long during his goal drought, I take criticism on the chin. You stick with Danny because he is a proven goalscorer and maybe we did go one or two games long. So that is down for debate but it is a terrifically constructive criticism, Scott Dobie agrees with the texter, Scott Dobie absolutely agrees with him 100%. Scott at the end, he did his bit didn't he, he proved that he had got that desire and that hunger back.
" Let's hope that next season Scott has got a season of frustration that comes out of him and he can come on to bigger and better things and be a much better player. Well much the player that we think that he can be, he is a proven player, he is an international but it is a terrific question and loyalty sometimes backfires. You stick with people though and you are looking for a little bit back and eventually we got it but it is a fair question. "
" If you split Carlisle down the middle then you might have half on Danny Graham's side and half on the other side. So you are never going to be right, did we stick with him too long? Danny is one of those players, he could get you a hat-trick just like that, in ten minutes he could get you a hat-trick. You think go on Danny go on, make it, I need you to go and get us that goal.
" He is our proven goalscorer, over the two seasons he has got over 40 goals, that is over 20 a season. You think go on Danny bail us out, I have shown a lot of loyalty in you. He is one of those though, it goes on for a number of games then all of a sudden he hits a goal trail of seven or eight goals in three or four games, he is one of them.
" So whether it is too long or too little, in hindsight he didn't score so possibly that was the wrong thing to do was to stick with him. What I am saying though is that I have got a player there that is my top goalscorer over two seasons, I need goals, I need results and you are just hoping that he hits that run of form that you know that he is capable of.
" He could start the season in ten games and have fifteen goals and be top scorer by three or four quite easily. He has got that potential and that is what you were hoping was going to come out at any one point, who knows when the drought was going to stop, who knows when his goals were going to start again. "
" Do you know that the best Public Relations for the club is for us to be winning games and playing great football. Listen, we can assure everybody that we are going to be working our socks off from day one, from July 1st. Any other gimmicks that anybody knows of, I am not into gimmicks and all that, I am just into what I know best and that is getting results out on the pitch and getting the players showing the same sort of spirit that the likes of Richard Keogh has.
" Wearing their heart on their sleeve and Scott Dobie at the end of it, I think that it was sheer determination that got us out of it in the end. I don't think that it was out and out skill, but you get your results early on, you get a run of steam up, you get the determination, you get the city together like we did the last game of the season. It was a really nice afternoon wasn't it, and everybody was under pressure.
" I can assure you that we were all under pressure, whether we showed it or not we were all under pressure. The best Public Relations for me is to make sure that the team gets off to a good start, plays some, even if it is not attractive attacking football, get the ball in the attacking areas sometimes. Get crosses in, get shots, get the excitement going and when you get a run of results all of a sudden you start playing that fluent attractive stuff that we know that we can do.
" We have made a number of inquiries about new signings, we have probably got seven or eight live targets that we keep in touch with via agents and via the clubs. We are just waiting for our situations to get resolved and then we can move on those. "
Dennis Booth
" I'm just trying to think but I don't really have any superstitions. I always like to get to the ground very early, I don't like hanging around, I like to get there at maybe 11.30am or 11.45am. It just seems to me that I feel happier in that environment than just hanging around killing time at home in the flat where we stay.
" I like to just get down in there very quickly and my wife always says that I seem different once I get down to the ground in that environment. That is where I feel happiest, but superstitions, not really, we sit in the same place in the same dugout but that is all really, nothing about the underpants or anything like that. "
Greg Abbott
" Well I do, I have had a luminous pair of green underpants that I like to wear when we win games so they are still clean at the minute, I haven't worn them for a while.
" I just think that a North and South league makes a bit of sense. If you look at the division then it makes a bit of sense, we could be going to Darlington instead of Gillingham. Without a lack of respect to Gillingham, Darlington and Gillingham, there is not a great deal of difference in the two teams.
" We could be getting 8,000 - 9,000 grounds at Darlington and at Carlisle, yet we are sending our fans on a seven or eight hour trip down to Gillingham. Where it is a horrendous trip and we get back at 4am or 5am, I just think that it would make sense but I don't know, is it a good idea or is it a bad idea. It will have its pros and it will have its cons but I would much sooner be going to Darlington than Gillingham, but we will deal with it.
" We have got a decent set of fixtures pre-season all of which are at home apart from Workington. We are going to open up with Workington which is one that we like to do and help Darren (Edmondson) because he is terrific and we have a good relationship with them. Then we are going to play Hull City, we are going to play Blackpool, we are going to play Middlesbrough and we are still waiting for Newcastle. "
" We put in a shout for Newcastle to mark the centenary and we are still hopeful that that will take place. If it doesn't then we will have to look for another fixture on the 1st of August but we are still hopeful that they might come. Obviously we haven't bothered them too much over the last couple of weeks because their situation has been as serious as ours was at a higher level.
" I think that where has the money gone question is a question for the people above us. We do what we can do with what we have got available and then they do their best with what they have got available. They know the runnings of the club, I know that there were situations that cost the club a lot of money and the extra revenue that we might have got we didn't get. The gates were down and I would rather that other people came and talked about the finance side of it and I get on with the football side of it.
" I think that Ian (Morris's) situation changed in the minute that he played at left-back in the first play-off game and did terrifically well, and then they have gone to Wembley. He is now a Championship player and has been offered a Championship contract. So I think that they are just how quickly situations change in football.
" We might have done Ian the power of good and probably done him too good because he has gone back to his parent club, gets in the team and plays at Wembley. Then all of a sudden he is a Championship player, we have actually done Scunthorpe's job for them because we have given him games that he wasn't getting there. Good luck to the lad, that is the way that football is. "
Dennis Booth
" Manchester United for the Champions League for me. You have got some terrific players on both sides but I just think that Manchester United are probably a little bit more organised defensively. They are strong with (Nemanja) Vidic and (Rio) Ferdinand who have proved over the season. I know that they played against some top class players, the likes of (Lionel) Messi.
" As (Sir) Alex Ferguson said the other day, sometimes you can't stop these players and vice-versa with people like Wayne Rooney. I just think though that they have that little bit more stability about them that Barcelona possibly don't have. You just try to do your best to keep them quiet, but sometimes you just hold your hand up. I mean you can't do what you used to do in the old days and just smash them, but you probably couldn't, you probably couldn't get near them.
" We were talking today were me and Greg and I hope that it is a good final. I think that it is possibly, no disrespect to Chelsea and my lad is a Chelsea fan and he would have loved them to be there. I think though that most people would want to see Barcelona and Manchester United with the players on the field. I just hope that it is a good game and that obviously the English club wins, but you never know, it could be very dour, that is football, we don't know, that is why it is such a great game. "
Greg Abbott
" I don't think that it is as cut and dried as Manchester United are going to win. I think that Barcelona are unbelievable, the passing, the quality and then the players that they have got that can turn a game. I think that it will be a fantastic game of football, I hope that it is not one of these games where the teams block each other. I hope that they both go and have a right go at it, it is a perfect finale to finish with but I think that I am agreeing with Den.
" I think that Manchester United will just about shade it, bit I think that it will be very, very close. I think that it could be 3-2, I think that there will be a lot of great football in it but Barcelona are a tremendous side in possession of the football. I think that Manchester United have got to wrestle that off them and keep their shape and when they win the ball then they have obviously got their flair players that can hurt them as well. I might even stay in tomorrow night and watch it, football is the winner though. "