United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) at Thursday morning's press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking about Carlisle's upcoming game against Hartlepool on Saturday :
JP
Hartlepool at the weekend, what sort of game do you expect because they are under a new regime, they have had a couple of regimes since the main regime and they are a different side at the moment?
GA
Yeah, I watched them in Neale (Cooper's) first game and they didn't play particularly well, they got beaten quite comfortably at Sheffield United. But, I think they are a team that have improved and have had some good results of late, and listen, again, it is a local derby, it is tough, you never get stuff cheaply there. It always is a hard match and I don't see any difference, they are playing slightly different with the way they are setting up but we are ready for that, we are in decent form ourselves and there is an optimism there that we can go and put in another good performance.
But, listen, they are all tough games, I was at a game this week talking to three or four other managers in our league, Dean Smith was actually there and we were talking about how top and bottom there is no given at the minute, everybody is taking points off everybody else and are capable of taking points off everybody else. So, this will be no different.
JP
I know that you obviously have good relationships with your players, those that you have got, those that have gone, do you stay in touch with the likes of Evan Horwood and Paul Murray? Do you have a bit of a chat with them about how things are going at all in the build-up to these games? Can you do that?
GA
I hardly keep in touch with my mother, she has had an operation on Friday and I got in massive trouble for not ringing her to ask how she had gone, I actually did forget, and I did forget, I didn't know that it was on Friday. So, if I haven't been talking to my Mum that often then I am certainly not going to be talking to Paul Murray.
JP
I can see the headline now, Greg Abbott - terrible son after that revelation?
GA
Well, I hope she has forgiven me, I have rung her and I have sent her a bunch of flowers because it is a big operation she has had. But, I have enough time on the phone to not worry about making calls that I don't need to make, but the one to my Mum was important and my sister gave me a bit of a roasting, so I have eaten a bit of humble pie, sent her some flowers and I am back in the good books.
JP
Have you had Lubo Michalik practising his free-kicks ahead of this trip to Hartlepool?
GA
I bet nobody has wriggled out of a question as well as I did about that one about Evan Horwood and Paul Murray, what a wonderful reply that was. I am happy with myself, I have just wriggled out of the next question haven't I, it is like one of those, I have answered the question from before. What did you say?
JP
Lubo Michalik and free-kicks after that wonderful goal he scored there a little while ago, have you had him primed and ready for that one to unleash it again at Hartlepool?
GA
I hope so because ever since then he has never.............. We have got a river by our training ground and I think he has got more balls swallowed up from his shooting since then, and he thinks he is a player now. If he sticks to defending he will do for me, his attacking work forget it.
JP
Has he been living off that one a little bit then?
GA
Well, he doesn't say anything anyway so nobody knows, but he is just the big man is the big man. But, I don't believe anybody of his size and stature can't bully people out of taking them, but he keeps getting people like Bez (James Berrett) and J-P (Jon-Paul McGovern) bullying him off the free-kicks, so when he takes another one I will tell you how good he is going to be, he seems to be bullied at the minute.
JP
And talking about Lubo, how did he find it playing next to Danny Livesey? The different combination to the one that you had with Peter Murphy, they seemed to work quite well with that but very similar players though?
GA
Well, I would imagine he found it very difficult because nobody knows where Danny is going to pass the ball, so it is an art-form trying to understand his play. I thought they did very well together without joking, Danny has been waiting patiently and determined to play and I thought they did ever so well.
JP
In terms of one player you have been linked with during the week in various outlets, Ben Parker from Leeds, he is a player who would seem to fit the potential problem you have got at the moment, is there anything in that, is there anything you can tell us about that one?
GA
Yeah, we made an enquiry as late as Friday about Ben, I know a lot about Ben and I know the club really well so there was an enquiry made on Friday at about 2pm and we have had a bit of encouragement from that so we will see where it goes.
JP
OK, any sort of timescale on that? I suppose just the end of this transfer window would seem quite likely?
GA
The next 20 minutes would be nice wouldn't it, listen, timescale is not a thing I am going to talk to you about is it in terms of signings or injuries because it just bites you on the bum if you a put a time to it, and so if it develops it develops and as quick as it goes it will be.
JP
Just though would you be looking at the end of the transfer window or hopefully maybe even in time for Saturday if possible?
GA
Yeah, I mean it depends from the Leeds end how quick it happens, so we will leave that with them. But, I wouldn't want it to go too long because the immediate issue and the immediate problem is now.
JP
A week closer on towards the end of that transfer window, any further or any registered interest in your players from clubs at this stage?
GA
It is a boring answer this isn't it but nothing is happening, my phone has been switched off for seven days already, I am not allowed to buy anybody else already because we have got that many numbers in and they are all fit, or touch wood most of them are fit. Anything can happen, I am not going to say it is going to happen or it is not going to happen because anything could happen. We could lose somebody that we would least expect to lose or we could lose one of the players that more people might expect us to lose. But, at the minute it is quiet and I am OK with that.
JP
I know that you do have plans, but just for the fans who don't know perhaps how it would work, what sort of contingency do you have in place if one of those bids that you couldn't turn down came in for a player and in the short-term you had to make the move?
GA
Listen, it is the same answer that it was on January 1st, and you must get tired of asking me the question and I get tired of saying to you that all I am concerned about is that at the end of the window we are as strong, if not stronger than we were at the start of the window, and that is my contingency, to make sure that that happens, it is not always easy but I will be trying.