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" His decision is football you know, it is disappointing that we can't get him for a little bit longer. He is coming to what you would expect will be the best part of his career, he is pushing 24, 25, that sort of age group. Danny has made a decision though and footballers have that right now with the Bosman thing and coming to the end of their contract in doing whatever you want to do.
" So we have to get on with it, at least there is closure to it now, he is going to move on and we are going to move on and we are going to find a replacement that hopefully is good enough to fill Danny's boots and possibly even better. Let's just hope that that is what we can do.
" I didn't say anything about whether he is going to sign or not but when it goes so long through the summer and he doesn't say yes..... If he was going to stay then he would have said to me that he was going to stay right at the end of the season, which would have been a definite yes. So in my own mind I probably knew deep down that he was going to move on and try his luck elsewhere otherwise he would have committed earlier on.
" So we have always said that if players don't want to play for the club and want to go on then they have to do that, we have to let them go. Because really at the minute with the way that we are we want players that are going to die and go over that white line and give everything that they have got and more for Carlisle United. If Danny wants to do pastures new then he is entitled to do that and we wish him all the best.
" Apparently there is interest in him, and that was part of the reason that he did choose, I think that it is interest from the Championship as well. So if that is the case then you have to respect the fact that Danny wants to go and play at a higher level. I don't know who the clubs are though, there has been a lot of talk about Danny really from day one when he goes on his goalscoring runs, of interest in from other clubs, but nothing has happened. "
" This has come now where Danny's agent has obviously been busy, he has had contact with other clubs by the sound of things. There are a couple of Championship clubs I think waiting there to see what happens with him, so that is all I know at the minute, is that it is a level higher than we have got. So if that is the case then he is going to go and try that and see how he fares.
" Keiren (Westwood) has done it hasn't he and Joe Garner has done it, and they have gone on to bigger and better things and done really well at their respective clubs. So Danny is going to try that as well and at 23 he is coming into his prime as a goalscorer, he would think that he is approaching his best years. If he feels that he can handle the Championship then you have got to let the lad kick on, he might have ambitions of going into the Premier League after that if he can master the next level, who knows.
" Hindsight is a wonderful thing so if that is the decision that he has made then I have got no problem with that, I have to respect that, I can't do any different. I just hope that if it is another League One club then he doesn't score too many goals next season. Hopefully it will be a Championship club and it is a move that will progress his career for himself.
" Having to deal with the agent is the way that it is now-a-days. I must admit that when he doesn't speak to me at the end of the season with a positive yes, I have a feeling that it is going the other way and that is when his agent takes over. He probably advises his player not to talk to me because if he talks to me then we have got every chance of trying to persuade him and change his mind.
" So what the agents do, they keep them well away from everything, keep them out of all the meetings and they deal with the people at the football club and with other clubs as well. So that has just become part and parcel of what happens now-a-days. "
" There have been a few names bandied about today, I have been on the phone with Dennis (Booth) and Kav (Graham Kavanagh) most of the day today talking about the group of eight or nine players we have got in mind. There is a young one in there, well there are a couple of young ones in there, there are a couple of experienced ones in there. There is one that we think might go on to better things and do similar to Danny and score a lot of goals and then might move on.
" So there is a whole host of different ones, what I think with our situation at Carlisle at the minute is that we need somebody to come in straight away and be able to go into the team and score goals. We haven't got an age to wait for somebody to be developed. Say we bring in somebody at 20 and he doesn't score for a couple of months but we know that he is going to go on to better things, a la maybe Jermaine Beckford, that type when he came.
" We have got to have somebody that comes in and makes an instant impact so that would maybe tell you that he is not going to be 18 or 19. We are having a look at all the options though and we will work out which are the ones that we want to go for and make a positive chase for those players.
" I am not going to put myself or anybody under pressure to say that it has got to be today or tomorrow that we sign someone. I think that it is important that we get the right one and the main list of players retained and released hasn't come out yet. So to be fair, obviously it has gone on open news today about Danny and my phone never stopped with people throwing names at me. "
" We want to do the right one though and get the right player, the one that we think is going to make a big impact straight away. So if it can happen in a week then that is fantastic, if it takes me two or three weeks then so be it, if it takes me into July then we might have to wait for that. What I can tell everybody though is that we will have a striker to replace Danny Graham in the squad for the first game of the season.
" How do you pick an house? If you got five houses for £100,000 then you look at pros and cons don't you. You look at where they are located, if they are going to improve in money, it is that sort of thing. It is the same with footballers, is he going to score goals straight away, can we sell him on later on for more money, develop him.
" Can we then go buy and another one and is he going to take time to bed in, will he settle down in the area, where does he come from. There are loads of things so you have to put all those things into the melting pot and then maybe the one that ticks the most boxes out of the criteria you are looking for is the one that you have to put your hand on your heart for.
" It is a difficult one and you put 5,000 fans together and they would probably come up with 30 or 40 different names. We have got to be the one that is the right one and choose the one that is going to make an immediate impact. Because what we don't think we have at the minute is time, we want to get off to a good start. We want a striker to come in and hit the ground running and be an instant success. "
" I think what we are going to do is that we are going to give every single outfield player and the goalkeepers just the same, equal time in the friendlies. As we get nearer to the start of the season we will start looking towards the team that is going to start the season.
" Everybody is going to get equal time though, minutes on the pitch, and that includes the young boys like Tom Aldred and Conor Tinnion. They are going to get time to show us if they are ready or not. It is a big time for Gary Madine, he is going to have time on the pitch to prove if he is ready to step into Danny's mantle if you like. All the other players are going to get pitch time as well.
" If Adam (Collin) proves that he is better than Ben (Williams) from day one and he looks like he is going to be the better keeper then he starts the season as number one choice. I think that is common sense but at the minute we are really pleased with Ben Williams and the end to the season that he had. It is up to Adam to come in and put as much pressure as he can on him, and if that starts in pre-season then fantastic, we have got real competition with the goalkeeping jersey.
" He (David Raven) is away on holiday, I think that he is back tomorrow and he promised a decision. He was having a week away with his girlfriend to make a decision but the vibes that I got from David before he went were very, very good. So with that one I am pretty confident that we can sort something out with David and get him on board, and that really is my back four and the goalkeeper situation sorted out. "