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Clemmit
The Carlisle United manager Greg Abbott has got one from each club in his back pocket, James Chester from Manchester United, and, wait for it, Tom Cruise. As if he is not under enough pressure, have you opened a Church of Scientology prayer room at Brunton Park for him?
GA
He has got to be some player with a name like that hasn't he? All the headlines have been made for him before he came. But, he is a really nice lad and a really unassuming lad and he has settled in quite nicely with us to be fair.
Clemmit
Good, I am curious about the whole process of getting these loanees, how you find out about them, who you negotiate with, do the big clubs vet you to make sure you are going to do a nice finishing job on them, how does it all work?
GA
Well, a little bit of everything in what you have just said to be fair. Just going back to the Arsenal keeper (Wojciech Szczesny), he played against us last year for Brentford and he was unbelievable, and probably Brentford are the reason why he has got himself a game tonight. Because, he has gone out there and proved he can do it, so it works.
But, what generally happens is that we have to identify talent at these reserve games that we all go to, myself and all the backroom staff. Then what you try to do, you try to work out which of those players can maybe make the step up to real live football. Because, some of the reserve team football you see is nice, it is technical, it is at a nice pace, the result is not the be-all and end-all.
So, what you do then is you try to identify a player, then within that club you try to get somebody from the coaching staff that you know and whose opinion you trust, and then it all goes from there. Obviously, then it goes to the manager of the such club who would authorise a move for a player who he thinks would benefit from live football.
Sir Alex (Ferguson) has been brilliant with his backroom staff, Warren Joyce and Micky Phelan at Manchester United and Liam Brady to be fair and Neil (Banfield) at Arsenal have helped us with Tom. So, there is a lot of work gets done before you actually get the player out.
Chapman
And do you have to, not justify I suppose, but explain to the coaching staff how you will use the boys and how you will kind of play football with them in your system?
GA
Yeah, listen, I think they want the lads to go to clubs where they think their game will develop, and the football is the right type of football to improve their own personal development. We try to play decent football at a decent pace, we look after young players, we have got a lot of young players in the squad.
We are not frightened to discipline them if they step out of line, Sir Alex is fantastic with that. We had a player from a Premier League club last season that we actually sent home for the weekend because he stepped out of line and got a bit big time Charlie.
I think what we are trying to do is carry on the work, the fantastic work, that certainly the Manchester United boys get from their staff, and make sure that they go back having played real football and they have had a real taste of the highs and lows.
We got beat by Dagenham on Saturday and our dressing-room wasn't a great place to be, but again, it is a learning curve even when you get beaten for what things might happen and what is said and what criticisms are labelled at players. So, the players might have learned as much about the defeat against Dagenham as they did about beating Southampton and Sheffield Wednesday a couple of weeks ago.
Clemmit
I am curious about the whole sort of chemistry, but also do they join as part of their finishing process do you think? Or do you think in some cases loanees are available to prepare those players for life away from Old Trafford or the Emirates?
GA
Well, not everybody is going to get through, that is an actual fact isn't it. So, we think it is a double-edged sword. If we get these players and they find that their route is blocked because of the absolute quality that Arsenal and Manchester United have got then we look after those players, they get some football and they enjoy themselves.
And if the big clubs decide then that they are not going to get into their first team then we have got a bit of a head start on trying to get those players into our club on a permanent basis. Maybe we will help them develop at our club, improve our position and maybe we can sell them on in the future, which obviously being at Football League clubs, it makes them survive.
So, that is part and parcel of it as well, but I think with the loan system it is a win-win for each club and the player. If that is the case then it has got to be right for the game and certainly for the young players who are at that stage in their career where they need to play proper football, and they probably have seen the backside out of reserve team levels.