After listening to former owners John Courtenay and Fred Story, new co-owner of Carlisle United, David Allen, spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Friday evening as he responded to the earlier comments of the two men, Allen outlining the club debts from his perspective :
" I was listening there to John Courtenay and I was also listening to Fred Story, Fred Story certainly seemed to address most of the issues quite well. Obviously John Courtenay seems very, very disappointed, naturally he is disappointed, he says he wants to buy the club and obviously hasn't got it, so he just sounds very, very disappointed. I'd be very disappointed if he took legal action because obviously that is just hindering what we want to get on and do. We'll have to just sit back and see what comes.
" I think probably my figures will be better than John's. In June 2004 the club owed the Bristol and West mortgage £1.1 million, it owed John Courtenay's company Toplion Sportswear Limited £980,000, it owed it's creditors ongoing bills for running the club £242,000. It owed the VAT £103,000, it owed PAYE and National Insurance on wages £411,000 and it owed Corporation Tax on top of that which takes us to £3 million.
" In addition to that there were hire purchase agreements on cars, there were loans due to directors for money that they had put in to pay the bills. There were loans due to people like the brewery who were subsiding the club, all that adds up to just under £4 million. Now quite rightly what John did say, and he is right, it cost John apparently £3.2 million to run the club, what he did do was when he left he wrote off just over £1 million which then brought that debt down to just under £3 million.
" The debt is down now to under £2 million, what I can tell you, in the two years before Fred Story took over this club it was losing £1.1 million a year and that can be seen by the accounts that are filed at Companies House. Now, when you are losing £1.1 million in each of two years you have got to be running up debt. Fred sorted all that out, the club is running quite satisfactorily now and it has paid off quite a bit of debt as well as improving the infrastructure. "
" The debt has all settled down now and it is ticking along quite nicely, the money that is owed now is a few creditors for ongoing bills that are getting paid every month. There are some loans in there from directors, a £1.5 million loan from Storys, Fred said there that that loan to Storys and from the directors are interest free and there are no immediate plans to repay any of that.
" The debt won't be coming down when we are selling players because our intentions are that if we are forced to sell a player then any money that comes in will be reinvested in the team. I think that is the best thing to do with that money. Certainly I won't be taking any money out, there is a lot of speculation that when owners sell players they take the money out for themselves but I can assure you that isn't the case.
" What I mean by a sound business model is that when Fred Story asked me to come down to the club to get involved on the financial side in the summer of 2004 the club was losing £1.1 million a year. We've stopped that, the club sunk into the Conference, we've brought it back from the Conference, it had a fantastic season last year, finishing in the top of League One and covering its bills. That's what I mean by that.
" It was never the intention to buy Joe Garner and sell him, people like Joe, he was there on the market at the right time. He was identified by the staff as a real talented lad, they went out and secured him, they brought him to Carlisle United. He is an absolute superstar, he is an exciting player to watch, unfortunately he has got injured. The club wouldn't have any intentions to sell him, we might get forced into that, it is no secret that we have been approached by Nottingham Forest but there is nothing firm on the table yet.
" I'm not aware at all of any approaches for Danny Livesey, it is certainly not our intention to sell him at all. As for niggles (David Raven), the same goes for him, Keiren (Westwood), obviously Keiren went, a fantastically talented lad. We are taking the credit for bringing him on, the coaching staff and the team that have brought him on, he has done fantastically well at Carlisle United. "
" We don't want to steal anything from Keiren, he is very talented but at the same time he has done it at Carlisle United. He has aspirations to play in the Premier League, good luck to him. We'd like a goalkeeper to play like that at Carlisle but when you have got aspirations to play in the Premier League you just can't hold a good man back.
" We don't intend to give John Ward a transfer fund, he has already got it. John is happy with what he has got, it's all in place, I don't want to quote exact figures, we'll have people from all over the country wanting a share of it. We want to leave it to John Ward to do what is right.
" The gates are down all over, it's not just Carlisle United. There is some fantastic coverage on SKY and on the television. People are talking about the credit crunch and that, there is a lot of pressure on people. All I would suggest to people is that I was there when we beat Leeds 3-1 this season and it was absolutely magical. Come and join in the atmosphere, enjoy the club, we want to build it for the benefit of the wider community, just come and fill your boots and enjoy it like we are going to.
" We've got one or two things to try to encourage people down, encourage kids and also promote the club a bit more. Please come and enjoy it and just get stuck in. We're not perfect at the club, we are striving to do everything better, if people have got ideas then come and tell us. We are already speaking to one or two people in the town about a different ticket outlet up in the town to help working people get their tickets through the week, and we'll try to improve our marketing.
" Just bear with us, obviously there will be one or two people concerned, quite rightly. I remember the concern when Fred Story bought the club and look what Fred has done. Just bear with us, watch what we do, we want to do it right for the benefit of everybody. "