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Greg Abbott
" What we kind of get away from as well is that Carlisle United have had some success over the past few seasons you know. We have come up from the Conference, we have won League Two, we have had a terrific first season in League One when I think that we finished eighth, then we got into the play-offs. This season is the first season that we have had a bit of a stutter and there are a number of reasons and a number of issues regarding that.
" So I think that we have had as much success near enough as Scunthorpe, they have gone in the Championship, they have gone to that next level which is fantastic to Nigel and his players and a brilliant achievement. It is not beyond what we are trying to achieve here though, we have got 9,000 against Millwall and Millwall wanted to win the game, believe me not, the last game of the season and we were the better side in the game.
" In the games prior to that the dividing line between success and failure is that tight that we feel that we have got to move on again. We have had one season on a stutter and now what we have got to do is regroup. We have got to assemble a squad that is capable of going back to doing what Scunthorpe have done and challenging at the top end of this table, and that is what we aim to do. To say that we have had no success over the past two or three seasons though I think is maybe a little bit harsh.
" Gav (Gavin Rothery) is one of those players that he was a top player as a young lad, he was an under-20 England international (ed - under-19). He had a year out with an ankle reconstruction and he is one of these players, he is a hungry one, he is a young player, we want some youth and some energy throughout the squad. "
" He gives us cover on both sides of the pitch, right or left, or just playing off a centre forward. He comes in to push the senior players and keep them on their toes, he is hungry and he wants to go forward and he comes in at the right sort of price in terms of the wage structure. He is the one that if he gets his form completely back then he might be one that we can develop and move on further down the line.
" I have been on the phone for about 45 minutes today to the assistant manager of Middlesbrough (Malcolm Crosby). Certainly Middlesbrough, Newcastle and Sunderland are sides that we are trying to do deals with, to be honest Middlesbrough going down and Newcastle going down doesn't actually help us. Because their players that all of a sudden that they might have been thinking about releasing, they might think are very, very good players for the Championship.
" They might decide to give some of their younger players a go at the Championship because it is a level that they think they can hold. I don't think that it has done us any favours because they have got a lot of young players at both clubs that we would be definitely interested in. They might end up giving those players an opportunity now that they are in Championship now, so I don't think that has worked to our favour whatsoever.
" I think that if you find out Stephen Dobbie's wage structure, we knew about him, funnily enough I spoke to the chairman of Queen of the South (David Rae) only two weeks ago when I was up in Scotland watching a game. He actually told me the details of the deal and we would be absolutely miles out in terms of finance, it is an unbelievable deal. Because obviously Swansea have got him without paying a fee, they have got him on a Bosman and the wages he is on, he is on near enough Premier League wages, it is an incredible deal. "
" So we inquired about him and asked the question and ran the rule over him from before Christmas to be honest. I think that as soon as he started scoring goals though, he always had the Championship clubs looking to take a chance on him, with the amount of goals that he scored it was inevitable. To be fair the goals they score the harder it is for us.
" I think that what we are looking at with the first year professionals, I would think that initially they start off as players that you are looking to prove that they are the right type of players. That they will learn and that they will get to the tempo of the level of first-team football. I think that the one out of the group at the minute that you might expect to make an impact, or hope might make an impact because he is physically developed, he is a man in terms of size and physical strength, is Tom Aldred.
" He is a centre-half and unfortunately we have got strength in depth in that position but you are looking at the ability of the likes of Conor Tinnion, there is the fact that Andy Cook scores goals. You are hoping that they can make the step up from youth football, there is a massive gap from youth football to first-team football at League One level.
" It would be wrong to push them but if they are good enough and they prove that they can come back after pre-season and are playing better and are performing better, and are looking like they can handle the physical side of it then they will be given a chance. I think that in all the pre-season friendlies, which will be great for the fans I think, that everybody is going to get a go, nobody has got a guaranteed place at the start of this season.
" Everybody in all the friendlies is going to get their fair share of pitch-time, that includes Andy Cook, Tom Aldred and Conor Tinnion. It will be interesting to see how they compare and at the end of that we have to then put all the performances together and decide which is the team that we go with on the opening game of the season. They will all be given pitch-time in the friendlies though, and that includes the big games against Middlesbrough, Hull City and Blackpool which will certainly test the best of our players, never mind the young kids. "
Dennis Booth
" You always learn about a player from a loan spell and I think that Gary Madine's at Rochdale did him good. He went out there and it is a tough challenge, again moving up from youth team and reserve team football, even at Rochdale a division lower it is very difficult. I think that will have done Gary the world of good and he is coming back next year after he has had a good summer.
" He will start pre-season and Gary will be working very hard to be pushing for a place and I think that he has got a very good chance of doing that. It certainly did him very good indeed, it is better than reserve team football and he probably found it a little bit tough, but that is what professional football is about at any level. I think that it has done Gary the world of good and I am expecting him to come back and be a real force next year. "
Greg Abbott
" We know that Andy Cook and Gary Madine can score goals at youth team level, they have scored them in bundles. We have moved Gary on quickly and the situation with Gary is that Gary had everything easy for him, he was part of the team that beat Manchester United in the FA Youth Cup. There were people talking about him going to big clubs, Premier League clubs and everything was going his way.
" He has had everything on an up and the first sign that this is a tough game, this is a tough industry, was when he went to Rochdale and he only played the one game. He came back and he sat with me and he said that it was hard and that this really was a tough game. Then he started to understand the reasons why we were keeping him on the bench and giving him 15 to 25 minutes here and there.
" There has got to be a time when you have got to let Gary go but the reality is that the game is harder. I think that it has given Gary that thing to think that this game is tougher than he thought it was and that he has got to work harder. We are going to have them back in afternoons with the younger kids because I think that after two years, when the young players do their apprenticeship, they actually think that they have made it and that they know the game fully.
" Well they don't know the game, they are only touching on the game aren't they. We are going to start the work in the afternoons and Graham (Kavanagh) and Dennis and myself are going to work with these young players and actually teach them the game. Because they are only touching on actually learning the game through the two years that they had. Dennis has been in the game for 45 years and still doesn't know it all and would confess that there are still things that he can learn. "
" Likewise myself and then Kav ten years even younger than that, so I think that these young boys that come out of their apprenticeships at 18 and think that they know it all. It is not always the case and we have got to make sure that they keep working to keep themselves progressing. You are talking about Carlisle having three or four good seasons and then having a little bit of a stutter, well that has happened with Gary.
" He has had three unbelievable seasons, rose to the top quickly, and now it is levelling out finally and that is when the hard work has got to start with Gary. In his own mindset initially and then with us to say to him that he hasn't really made it just yet and that there is a lot of work to do. Listen, we want Gary Madine in the first-team, fantastic for us but he has got to be good enough and be able to handle the first-team and all the pressures and all the things that go with it.
" We are in sort of contact with Michael (Bridges) and it is one of them that again his agent and his people are working with him and looking for deals for him and looking at interest in him. I spoke to Michael again this morning and what we are doing at the minute, he is contracted until June 30th with Hull City.
" They have not given their released list at the minute so until we get the released list and Michael is not going to be a Hull City player, which looks probably the case, we can't officially look at Michael and talk with him in that way. So he knows the situation and we are just a little bit on hold at the moment, as soon as we get the released from Hull and permission to speak to Michael in terms of what we can do and what we can offer. Then we will find out what is on the table for him and we are going to see if we can compete with that. "
" There are a lot of players that we are interested in, and what you have got I think is do you go for players from the Conference, League Two, do we look for that loan player from the Premier League. We sit around the table more or less every day during the season and then on the phone to Dennis and Kav every day during pre-season and then we meet up.
" What we look at is, we look at availability, we look at levels, we look at quality, we look at the types of players that we have already got in and then we work. We think that there is a handful of centre-forwards, which is the one out of that, and then we look at all the opinions, we look at the times that we have watched them, we look at the reports on them and we make a decision. Right, we go, there is a priority target, number one is him.
" We know who our number one is, we might not get him, there are a lot of situations that might change but we know our number one priority. If we get the green light to go in that situation and go for that then we will be going for that. If we can't for whatever reason it may be then we look at number two. We have got five or six centre-forwards on our list that we think will improve on what we have got if the situation arises.
" I think that if Michael Bridges comes in then it would be difficult to get another striker in because if Danny (Graham) stays that means that we will have five centre-forwards. We will have Michael Bridges, we would have Danny Graham, we would have Joe Anyinsah, we would have Scott Dobie and we would have Gary Madine. "
" What we said as well in terms of the retained and released list, we can't have four or five players on major money. They are big players too, they are not on peanuts, they are on good salaries, we can't have four or five players sitting in the stands, the club finances just wouldn't be able to hold that. If the strikers are at your football club then how many players can you have, we need to look for consistency, Danny Graham needs to get back on the goalscoring chase.
" Scott Dobie has come in in his last three games and said look at that, what a player he could be. He is now looking a different mindset, he is now looking a different player, he is like a new signing is Scott. He was terrific in the last three games so unless we shift them then we wouldn't probably be able to bring anybody else in at this present moment.
" What I am saying to everybody is that that situation might change, Danny Graham's situation, Michael Bridges's situation. Does somebody come in for one of our other centre-forwards that they like and they might try to buy him. So the situation as it stands, if we had all five on our books then I would think that the board, if I went to the board and said listen, I have got another centre-forward, then they would ask the question.
" They would say that hang on a minute, I have already got five and you are asking for more money to get another one. Financially it might not be viable and certainly we couldn't have that amount of strikers sat in the stands twiddling their thumbs on the salaries that those players are, they are not young players.
" I am telling you now that I would like a squad of 20, I would like an experienced squad of 20 and then you have got the young players behind that. Now what we have got to do is wait and see which players that are out of contract come back and give us a yes or a no and then we can move from there. Until we get those answers then the number is OK, 20, the actual content of that 20 will remain in the hands of the players that have already been offered contracts and we have to work around the back of that. "
Dennis Booth
" Richard Keogh came in and did a very good job for us at the end of the season, there is no doubt about that. He is a good character is Richard, he hates losing and he has got a lot of determination in situations at the end. Because he hadn't had a great season up until then, he was in and out and he was a bit disappointed with not being in the side.
" Richard was probably one of the key players though at the end of the season for us in that position, some of his performances - he gives everything, that is all that we could ask. When Danny Livesey comes back next season hopefully fit then we will look at the side and we will pick whoever is doing the business. So Richard Keogh has got a very good chance of being in the side, it is up to him, if he performs as he did in the last few games then we are going to have some difficult decisions to make, so he played a very big part. "