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" Last year was a funny summer, the summer was busy again like it is this summer looking to find players and bring better players in and make the squad stronger. As it turned out last season we were doing that and then wham on the first game of the season it all went a little bit pear-shaped. I wouldn't have thought that will happen again this time around, I hope not anyway. It's been busy again though and again we're looking for players to improve the squad and make things better and hopefully enable us to be at the top end of the table again come this time next season.
" I think we need four more points than we did to get ourselves promoted, that's for sure. We get ourselves into a position because the players were absolutely outstanding I thought for 85%-90% of the season, we just fell down a little bit at the final hurdle. It was always going to be tough, the resources that we had weren't as big as other teams. Leeds bringing in Dougie Freedman on £15,000 a week, we didn't have that facility at Carlisle.
" Maybe if we had had that behind us, that backing behind us, we might have gone that little bit further. It wasn't to be though and financially it would have been crazy to do something like that as well. I just think that the size of the squad, the depth of the squad that we had was probably just a little bit short at the end. We maybe just got found out a little bit right at the end of the season. It is a marathon is the football season, right to the death we were in there and probably we just came up short.
" We can't be disappointed with that, we're disappointed with the outcome because of where we were and how close we were but I think if you look at the big picture we have competed and outdone a lot of massive clubs in our league. I think that everybody needs to be proud of that rather than dwell on what did or didn't go wrong.
" It's more of a level playing field in League One than the Premier League that's for certain. There are teams though who are always going to start ahead of everybody else in terms of finance, where they can look for their players, and the amount of money they can pay players. Leicester, Leeds are two of the big clubs and surely will be up there challenging for top spots again with the teams that come down, Colchester will be strong. It doesn't always take that the clubs with the most money are going to get promotion though. "
" We've got to make sure that we exhaust all our resources, use all the finance that we get available wisely and make sure we improve what we have got to give ourselves a chance of competing again right at the top. We've proved we can do it one season so what we can't be is one-season wonders, we have got to make sure that we have done it again. We were close the season before as well, we just missed out on the play-offs, we got to the play-offs last season. I think that this year we have just got to try to kick on a little bit further and hopefully do that a little bit better again. It won't be easy but it is by no means impossible.
" It is the same at most clubs with takeovers and all that, everybody is in the dark until it actually happens. I don't think that it is something that we should be worrying about until it does happen. It doesn't stop us looking for players at the minute, we know what we have got available in terms of funds and we have to look at players within that fund bracket. If there is a takeover and more money comes in then we'll look at the group of players that come into the next bracket.
" Everybody would like more money, everybody would like a new ground, everybody would like big name signings, and we are no different from anybody like the fans as a management team. At the minute though it is not happening, until that happens we have to keep going with the resources that are available and have been promised by the club. They are the levels we are looking at at the minute, it would be silly for us to look elsewhere because all the other stuff is hearsay.
" We are like the fans, we are the last to know about stuff like takeovers, I know nothing, I couldn't tell anybody anything even if I wanted to. We just keep doing our jobs, that is what we are paid to do, all the rumours going around are at the moment just rumours. Until that changes and something becomes concrete we just have to get on with our job, it is a frustrating time for us as well as the supporters I have to say.
" I think there are two goalkeepers that we are very keen on. Talks have got to a really advanced stage, I spoke to John (Ward) today and he is really confident that by the end of this week that something will happen on the goalkeeping front. That's good news for the fans and obviously it's good news for us as well, because we need to go into the season with a good recognised goalkeeper.
" I believe that by the end of this week a signing is imminent on the goalkeeping front and John has assured me that they are very, very well advanced with the financial talks, which is always a key in making a new signing. So that is good news for everybody and hopefully that will make the fans a little bit more assured that we are going to start with a new goalkeeper for the new season. "
" For me we couldn't stop Keiren (Westwood) progressing his career, it's a career move for Keiren himself. When somebody gets a bid the size of Keiren's and it gets accepted and he starts talking figures with Coventry on his own personal wage demands. I don't think then that we are being fair by stopping him going anyway, so you have got a massive problem then by keeping a player that is going to be unhappy. He would have been unhappy because he wants to progress his career, and rightly so because he is a top drawer goalkeeper.
" Personally, if you are asking me my opinion, I think that we have to get the money in for Keiren now and use the money wisely on improving other areas of the pitch where we need that strength in depth. It's only my opinion, it might be different to other people, but it is that we cash in on Keiren now rather than let him go for nothing. There is nothing to say that Keiren is in goal and we are going to get promotion anyway.
" He has been a fantastic player for us this season but the goalkeepers that John are looking at are really, really very, very good, very strong. If he can get some more strength in other areas of the pitch as well then I think the money for Keiren will be absorbed in those areas. I think that we should benefit as a team and a football club, so that's only a personal opinion but I think that the club have probably made the right decision.
" I don't want us to get a tag of a club that just brings players in to sell them on and make money because that would disappoint my ambitions and John's ambitions. My ambition at the moment as an assistant manager, and John's is, is to get the club into the Championship. Now if we get tarred with the brush of just bringing in players to sell on for more money then we are never going to get anywhere. Yes, financially the club is going to be safe, but it is not going to be a progressive football club.
" To be honest with you I am not interested in finance, I'm interested in football. I want to coach and manage and be involved with a team as high as I can, so I would hate to think that we would develop into that sort of a club. You have to work in terms of common sense though and common sense sometimes is to sell a player for massive money knowing that you can strengthen in two or three other areas and make the whole team better to forsake one individual. "
" It's obvious we need strength in depth because if we had that then I think we would have gone up last season. If we can use the money wisely on the Keiren deal, and if anything else happens and another player has to go. He can only go for me if we get the money in and we can make two or three signings that are going to make the whole squad better, the whole thing better than what it was before we let that player go.
" Ultimately if we are told by the board they have to go for financial reasons then our hands are tied, but that has never been the case. It's always been a decision made that works for the best of the football club, not the individual like Keiren is concerned. More the whole decision is hopefully made so that the club benefits long-term.
" I've seen quite a bit of EURO 2208 and I'd like to buy (Andrei) Arshavin but I don't think that Fred (Story) is going to give us the money to do that deal. I think he has been absolutely outstanding, he is not unheard of, I know that most football fans will have heard of him obviously with the Rangers-Zenit game. I just think that he has been sensational the games he has played, I think his performances have been absolutely top drawer.
" The tournament as a whole has been quite entertaining to be fair. I'm glad that the Italians have gone out because it would have been pretty much a bore affair. Apart from them though most teams have tried to play attacking football, and to be fair it has been quite entertaining. There are some magnificent players in the European Championships.
" Italy, the amount of money they pay and the attacking qualities they have got, they always seem to want to do to the negative stuff. They always want to stop the other teams playing before they actually give their own exciting players the chance to perform, and that is really disappointing. The Spanish have got some fantastic players, and that game Spain against Italy, I was in bed after about 60 minutes fast asleep.
" I think Germany will get through in the semi-final, I think they will be too strong for Turkey. I think the Russians have proved that they are a really, really strong outside bet and possibly not so much of an outside bet now. I'm going to go for a Germany-Russia final, and I think the Germans, they always come good at this time of the year. I hate to say it but they are always tough to beat and I think that they will just shade it overall. "