United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Paul Newton (PN) at Tuesday's open press conference for the local media, Abbott first talking about his own current contract situation at Brunton Park:
GA
Obviously, we are just waiting for everybody to sort of sort all their issues out. There are one or two little issues that have slightly changed from what they were and how they have been done, so we are hopefully again going to speak to John Nixon later on. I have got a lot to do today but hopefully things will be sorted out and resolved hopefully by the end of this week.
It has been said to me that things will be sorted out, so I have been pretty comfortable with it. I think the key is to make sure the message goes out to the fans that one way or another they know what is going to happen. I think the crux of it is there is something on the table for us to accept or not accept.
I have always known that, or sort of known that for the last sort of two to three weeks. In the back of my mind I thought it would happen anyway, so I have been pretty comfortable with it and am just getting on with the job of restructuring for next season, which is a lot more difficult than talking over the other bit. But, obviously without that there is nothing to talk about.
PN
And there is any further news on the players you have offered contracts to?
GA
I don’t know, have you any idea because I don’t know. It is again, they have probably got another week or ten days to digest the deals and let their agents deal with them. So, they are doing that at the moment and I am waiting for their feedback before I can sort of move on and decide where we need to go in terms of new players.
PN
Lee Miller obviously will not be short of admirers, I guess that makes the job a bit more difficult from your perspective?
GA
Well, it does and it doesn’t because as a manager what you have always got to be prepared for is that players will leave your club, and if you do you have got something in place to replace them. If you look at it we have probably released two teams of players that would walk into anybody’s first team in League One, and we have managed to recover after that.
So, if Lee does go we have got a proven track record that we can cope without him. I would love him to stay but there is not just Lee who has got admirers, there are other players that have been offered deals that have got admirers as well. So, we have got to be prepared for that and what we have done in the past is manage to deal with it and keep the club in decent shape and decent order.
PN
Where do we stand with that in terms of player recruitment? I know you have been pretty busy over the last week attending matches up and down the country?
GA
That is what I am, just busy. Like I say, I can’t really do too much until I have got definite yes’s and no’s. Until I do that it would be pointless me going and spending £200 on a player when I could spend £600 on a player because players haven’t, and I am only talking about hypothetical figures here, don’t quote me on those figures, but if one of our players doesn’t re-sign. So, we have got a list of players read, but we need to have definite outcomes on the other players before we decide to move with that.
PN
Are you close at this stage to bringing anybody in? I know obviously you released seven players at the end of the season, in terms of replacements how close are you?
GA
No, we are not close, there are no signings imminent because I need to know what I am looking for really. I need to know the answers from the others, that is my first port of call, once I have got the answers from them then we can start looking at others. We have spoken to lots of players and enquired about lots of players, but we are not imminent with anybody, because, like I said to you, I need to find out the definite yes’s to find out who I desperately need and what positions would become priority.
PN
Your opinion on Roberto Mancini’s sacking yesterday?
GA
It has become part and parcel of the industry that people panic for what I would say is little reason. They only have to look six or seven kilometres across that city and see what has been done with a team that has stuck with a manager who has been able to build a club and the success he has had. So, in my mind it is not a good decision but we have not all had the benefit of hindsight where if somebody else comes in and does better than he has done then it is the correct decision.
But, they have got to come in and do that, and he has won a league and won an FA Cup in two years, so there is a standard there that they have got to adhere to. But, the effect on the club, because that is a big club, this is probably has got less resources in terms of backroom staff, you have got players and backroom staff now that will go in and out of that door like you wouldn’t believe it.
It will be going through a hotel on holiday, it will be crazy. So, that costs money as well, to get rid and then to bring in costs an awful lot of money and I can’t quite see where it has come from to be honest. I can understand fans and board’s frustrations but it is an awful lot of money to do that, what they are doing.
Sir Alex though is an absolute legend and the best by miles and never ever to be replaced. I don’t see it, not the way the game is going and not with the scrutiny and the pressure that managers are under at the minute and the timespan you have got. You are talking about somebody who has just been sacked winning a Championship and an FA Cup, that tells me there can’t ever be another Sir Alex. The best picture for me was him with his grandkids on the pitch at the end of the game, that will stay in his life and their lives forever. But, he was simply the best.