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GA
They will get done when the players feel they are at the right times to agree. It is a frustrating time for people but it is a situation we have dealt with before, and we just we get on with the jobs and try to plan for the alternatives should things not go your way.
So that is what we have been doing and that is the reason we probably haven't done too much talking at the minute because we want to do the work and have something positive to tell everybody. So a lot of things have to work behind other things happening, if that makes a bit of sense to everybody, and that is where we are at right now.
PN
Would you say the early signs are positive at this stage?
GA
Yeah, I would, we are miles ahead of where we were last season because we know where we stand in terms of what type of finances are available. So I have been given an area to look at, there have been absolutely no costs cut this season, there won't be. What goes out will come back in, if that makes everybody happy.
I know the fans are thinking we are doing things to make things more cost effective, we are trying to be cost effective absolutely but we are not going to cut any sort of amounts of money that are going to spent.
What we are going to try to do is put all the money that we have generated in what we have done over the last few weeks and put it in to rebuilding the squad and hopefully making it a bit more exciting and one with a bit more quality.
PN
Something like 13 or 14 players went at the end of last season, that included your loan contingent as well. In terms of permanent additions, realistically how many are you looking to make between now and the start of the season?
GA
Not as many, I mean in that you have got loan people, you have got young players that are needing to develop. So you have got a few there that really, whilst I don't want to be disrespectful saying don't count, are at the bottom end of the pile. The senior players there are a lot fewer that that number, and what we are trying to do is get an adequate number in.
I am not going to say it is two, three, four or eight but it won't be as many as thirteen, and try to use the money to bring in maybe a little bit extra quality. A little bit of a type of player that will excite the fans and we all know what type of position costs the most money, we all know what type of position generates the most interest and we all know there are clubs queuing up for that type of player.
But I think we are in a few queues at the minute and the conversations we have had and the enquiries we have made and the offers we have made, and we have made offers, I will tell you that, for players, we are reasonably positive. There is no timescale on that because I would be shooting myself in the foot and the club in the foot, and things don't work as straightforward as that.
We spoke to a player on one day and the next day I couldn't get hold of him because he was in another part of the world and I rang him at 2am and he wasn't best pleased. But he did answer his phone and that is the type of thing you are up against, but we will continue the work and it is ongoing and we think we are making decent progress.
PN
With regard to the players you are looking to bring in, is a priority for you experience above potential or is it a mixture?
GA
I don't think we can run with the younger players at the 17, 18 or 19 age group hoping they might force their way into the team. I think we have got to get instant results, I think the momentum we have built up last season has got to be maintained. It is a club for some reason that always puts itself under pressure.
I would love to be able to have a 20-man squad and four or five players that we have plucked from the Premier League that have not quite made it there and hope they develop into players you can sell on. But you don't get a timescale in this job and that is a pressure put on you by a lot of outside influences, the media for instance, yourselves, you don't get time.
Fans, you don't get time, so we have to put that into an understanding, that is not a criticism, that is a fact, results are the key to this industry and we have got to make sure that we get these results early on. Hence the young development player might be on that we are not going to say no to, black and white, but I would love to get players that come into the club that have got a track record and are proven at this level.
PN
Four of the players that you had on loan at the back end of last season, Darryl Duffy, Jason Price, Adam Clayton and Ben Marshall, are they still on your radar?
GA
We have got loads of players on the radar, there are a massive amount of players on the radar. Some we have made firm offers for and firm enquiries for, some we are keeping warm just incase we don't get top targets you know.
Because obviously your top targets have generated interest from a lot of places, but there are a lot of players that we have discussed and talked about and found out about. Their backgrounds and the way they are and the type of characters they are. There has been an immense amount of work gone in to trying to get the right players and they are players that have done well for us and certainly are on the radar.
PN
What about players already here? Have there been any approaches? Any official interest in any of your squad?
GA
No, that is the one bit of good news. Obviously the released programme that we set out early on at the back end of the season, there has not been one enquiry for one of our players. So I am keen and absolutely cool about that.
PN
With regard to next season and looking to bring in the players and obviously strengthen the squad as well, do you envisage any changes in the way you approach games? In the system? In the formation? Or would that be largely dictated by the kind of calibre of player you are able to bring in?
GA
I think your systems and the type of player is always going to be dictated by the quality of player you have got in. I have had a look at the SKY, you look at the SKY every day, listen, we are a bit sad football managers because we look at SKY every day. We look at the news in the Championship and look at the news in League One and see who is going up and who is going down and what players are going where.
At the right-hand side of the screen are the average gates and the average gates of Carlisle were 18th in the division. Now I am going to put pressure on myself to say that I want that to improve just as much as the results. The results come first before the crowds but I think it is a thing that follows itself.
I think if we can improve results we can improve crowds. But my biggest thing this season is to try to improve crowds, and by that I think we need to provide more excitement, more aggressive, more attacking football at home, certainly at home. That is something that is massively in my mind when I am looking for my new players this season.
I want that crowd statistic to go up and I think what we have done now is that we have got the club at a level now where we are ready to kick on. We are ready to improve things and we are ready to bring in the type of player that can improve results, the way we play, the type of football we produce, and in turn that should bring in bigger crowds.
That is massively on my mind and I think I have got a debt to the fans, the 5,300 on average that came to every home game to give them the type of football that they want. But I have got one eye on that crowd attendance and I can assure the fans that we are going to try to play a brand of football that is more exciting, but it has still got to bring results at the end of the day.
So we have got to try to balance if off with that but I am aware of that situation because I see it on the SKY every day, 5,280 is it, or 5,380, it is sketched on my mind and if we can improve that then it means we have had a successful season as well.