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" Signing Kaka for the amount of money is not right, it can't be healthy for the game. The amount of money that is going to go out of the English game, because it is going to go out of the English game at some point. It is not going to get returned and ploughed back in and generate our own players. The money is going to at some point dry up and these people are going to go back abroad, back to their homeland, and they are going to take a lot of money out of our football, and it can't be healthy at all.
" I have told Colchester that if Kaka is worth that then you are missing three noughts off the fee for Simon Hackney. So I just think that their fax wasn't working or that they had tipp-ex-ed some of the noughts out. Simon is a good player though and he is part of what we are trying to do, we don't want anybody coming in and upsetting him and trying to unsettle things we are doing at the club.
" We are looking at competition in the squad, Simon provides that, he knows that he has got the potential to be a really top player for us and we want to see more of him at full pelt. At the minute though him and Jeff (Smith) are having a good battle for that wide-left position, and long may it continue.
" Of course every player has his price, people say that he is not for sale or that he is not for sale. It has just been proved with Kaka not being for sale but he is for sale isn't he because Manchester City have put a bid in there that is ridiculous. It has obviously got his employers thinking about whether or not they should cash in. So everybody has got their price and Carlisle are no different from Manchester United, Real Madrid, AC Milan, you name it. All the players come under consideration if the right amount of money is bid for them. "
" We are just concentrating on the football side of it at the minute, if things happen then they will happen on the transfer thing. At the minute though we have got a massive game tomorrow in MK Dons, and all our players are just focused on that. If something ridiculous comes in then we will let them know but at the minute the focus has to be on the football.
" We did it last week against Leeds United, we completely switched off to everybody about transfers and we concentrated on the game. We sent home everybody happy, the Carlisle people happy, because we got a terrific result at Leeds. The same thing has happened this week, we are concentrating on MK Dons and if we get a result tomorrow then all the other things are just put into the background and we can enjoy our performances.
" There is a different mood around the place and you can see that things are coming together because performances have a lot more determination. We have a lot more energy, even the reserve team, the boys in the reserves who some could be unhappy that they aren't in the first team, they performed terrifically well against Sheffield United. I think that the whole club is turning and making steps in the right direction, and we have just got to make sure, Dennis (Booth) and myself, that we just keep the whole thing flowing forward and continue the improvement.
" It will be a blow to lose Michael Bridges because we have worked and I spoke live on the radio when I came in just over a month ago. I said that he has got a big part to play if we can get him fit and keep him fit and get him sharp. I think that we have done that, we have got him in the team, he has shown us what he can do and it will be a big blow tomorrow because he is going to miss out and I will let everybody know that, it is not a problem. "
" He is going to miss out but we are just hopeful that he can get back on the grass by maybe Tuesday and put himself in contention for next week. Because at his stage and the way that he is we want him fit and we don't want him to lose any sharpness and any of that good play that he has built up, and then we can get him back involved as quickly as possible.
" We have spoken to Newcastle about Tim Krul and they are only like us. Everybody is concentrating now on tomorrow and after tomorrow we can look at the things like the Tim situation and the other things. I spoke to Chris Hughton tonight though to be honest, he is a smashing chap and we wished him luck for his game tomorrow at Blackburn away, and he has wished us good luck for tomorrow for our game at home.
" After the games have finished we will speak again on Sunday or possibly Monday and see if we can come to sort of arrangement with Tim. Everybody is concentrating on the game tomorrow though and for me that is the most important thing.
" You keep throwing the scent off the game tomorrow but the trialists (Michael Burns, Matty James and Gavin Rothery) have done really, really well. I keep talking about MK Dons and you keep talking about anything else. Listen though, the boys have done terrific, the three lads have come from all different areas and they have done really well. It is just another avenue of recruitment that we are looking at and the lads that have come in have done smashing. "
" They are going to play again on Monday night, two of them are going to play, Matty James who has been playing Sunday league football 18 months ago is not going to be quite good enough for what we look at, the lad from Bradford Park Avenue. The other two are going to continue though and they are going to play for the reserves on Monday and let's see what they can produce, but the performances were very, very encouraging on Wednesday night.
" So we are not going to talk about the MK Dons, we are going to still keep talking about transfer targets. Listen though, we have got some terrific strikers, I have got a great relationship with Matty (Jansen), when he came here before he trained really well. He decided that it wasn't what he wanted to do at the time. If that situation changes, I said to him that I am at the end of the phone if you ever need to pick it up and come and consider Carlisle United then you will always be welcome to come and train with us, and that situation remains the same.
" I'd have to say that the supporters who haven't given us a miss have been fantastic and I think that they have been enthused by the performances of late. Last week the fans that travelled down to Leeds were treated to something that they would consider as something special. It is special to us, it is a big result and tomorrow we are hopeful that we can encourage a few more through the gate.
" It is important to what we are doing, the support as always is terrific. The numbers that come through and follow us everywhere is fantastic. We want to make Brunton Park a fortress and I think that the fans have seen some positive signs of last season's form coming back. They have seen determination on the pitch and we would encourage that as we would do more of them to come and watch us play. "