David Allen - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 07 August 2009 By Thetashkentterror

David Allen
United chief executive David Allen spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria on Friday evening about the Football League tribunal decision on Danny Graham, Allen then later in the interview talking about his hopes for the season :


" It is a really exciting time, pre-season has gone really well. We have got a smaller more focused squad, they have come back from their break really well prepared and there is a great atmosphere down there. We have heard Greg (Abbott's) comments over this last week or so, Greg and the coaches, they are bouncing and everybody is really looking forward to it.

" The tribunal was a very, very good result for us, when you think of the disappointment at the start when they took Danny Graham and signed him up without talking to us. Then offering us £25,000, it just shows that we were right to take it to a tribunal and to fight our corner as hard as we could. I think that the tribunal panel wanted to send a message to these bigger clubs who think that they can operate outside the rules, and they have certainly done that.

" Greg has already been looking for a striker and that has been well publicised already. People know that Cleveland (Taylor) wants away so if that is the case then he will need to bring in a right-winger as well. That has always been the case and that has been the case regardless of the outcome of the tribunal.

" It has also been well publicised that the club has had a very, very difficult year on the pitch last year and financially as well, and we are certainly not in as strong as a position as we would like to be. So Greg's position is that he was looking for a striker anway, and that continues. We have never even talked about what figures Greg could expect, Greg knew what he was looking for anyway. You can see the calibre of strikers that he has tried to bring in and he has failed, that is not always down to money. "



" Greg is looking for those people, obviously nobody is going to come in now before tomorrow's game, but early next week I think that we will see a striker coming in. I don't think that it has opened more doors over who Greg might be able to bring in, Greg has got his list anyway and the scouts have been out looking for people. They are talking to people and are warming things up and are trying to persuade the right striker to come. That will happen anyway, Greg knows what he needs to do.

" I would sympathise with the fans and I am sure that Greg and other people at the football club would sympathise with all the people who think it has been left too late. We want a striker, nobody is saying that we don't want one or that we can maybe do without one or anything half-hearted like that. The message has been very clear from everybody at the club, we want another striker to play alongside Scott (Dobie), Joe (Anyinsah) and Gary Madine.

" We want somebody who is going to score 25 goals this next season and that message has never been anything different. We are disappointed just like Greg is and the fans are that we haven't secured that person before now, but it is certainly not for lack of trying, and it is certainly not for not looking at the right calibre of people. I am sure that if Greg had looked a lot lower then he would have somebody signed up before now, but that wasn't what we wanted at all. We would rather try to get in that right calibre player.

" The club is holding its own financially, we had a very, very difficult season last season. The club is holding its own and paying its bills, what we want to do is to rally businesses to come and sponsor the club and get involved, rally the fans to come down and support the club. Then hopefully we have a much better season than we had last season.

" We have got to be looking at something better than last season haven't we. When you think of the season before we were up in the play-offs and then to end up down fighting relegation, nobody wants to be down there. Certainly the squad that we have got now is more focused, a smaller squad, Greg is much more confident, they are his players this time. He is going into the season with his own players and we have got to do better. "



" I think that we are certainly looking to be a lot higher than we were last season. Nobody would want to aim to be just a little bit better than we were at all. Nobody wants that disappointment or anything like that, we have got to be looking that we want to be up in that top half and we want to be fighting for the play-offs.

" The season tickets have gone really well, off the top of my head I can't tell you exactly what they are but I know that there were some figures quoted earlier on there, but they have been going really well. They are slightly down on the season before but we actually expected them being a long way down when you think how bad our season was last season.

" We expected the season ticket sales to be a lot lower, I was speaking to Suzanne Kidd our financial controller down at the club just before and the pre-match ticket sales have gone really well for tomorrow's game. The weather will help us hopefully and we are just looking forward to a really good game.

" There is a little bit of confusion about the roadworks tomorrow and those roadworks are certainly going to cause delays. Anybody coming from the east, there is a little bit of a diversion up Eastern Way through Botcherby down Victoria Road and back onto Warwick Road and then straight up Warwick Road and into the ground.

" Anybody travelling from the west, you can't turn left to go past the college at the top of Georgian Way. So you have got to carry on, follow the diversion signs back round and the diversion sign will take you down to Stoneyholme Golf Course and you will come in the back of the ground that way. "