United boss Greg Abbott (GA) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) at this week's press conference for the local media, Abbott in the first part of a lengthy interview talking about his recent working holiday in St Lucia :
GA
It was a wonderful experience to be honest, something I am absolutely delighted I accepted and went, it was short notice but it has been a really good adventure, a real insight into a different culture. I made a lot of friends, really enjoyed the way things were done and some really positive things came out of the trip.
It is something that I think I will be doing again because they were very pleased with the way we set the thing up and the way that it worked and the way that a rapport between ourselves and the players and the President and the Technical Director (Ces Podd) there went really well. So, they were slightly surprised I think where Carlisle United were and what we had achieved, how we had done things, and when people find that out then you get credibility and it spreads from there. But, it was a really interesting fortnight and a fantastic experience.
JP
What were the players like? What were the guys like you were working with? I imagine they are hungry just to try to be as good as they can out there?
GA
Yeah, they are really laid back, really athletic, fantastic specimens in terms of athletes, all the pace is there, the build is there and the hunger is there. What they need is complete organisation of their work, their football work, which is when they have got the ball and when they haven't got the ball.
Because, they sort of go through their football as they go through life, pretty laid back, Caribbean time means you are late, nothing starts on time and nobody worries and you can't sort of get anxious. I got used to all that, but what we did stress was that if I am going to be on time then they have to be on time, and they took a while to work that out but they were very, very good. After the first session we had nobody turn up a minute late and one man was even an hour early, they thought he was British, he must be British. So, it was grand, it was really good.
JP
I suppose in that you can just send them to do laps and that will soon get them on time won't it?
GA
Yeah, they didn't like the running, they didn't like long running anyway. The heat is unbearable, it is one of the things that they have to deal with, it is a place you could actually go and coach all day because the heat allows to do that. You could coach more than in England, you have to stop coaching because it gets that cold that you need to keep people on the move, and I mean that.
But, over there the weather is that good you can stop it, but you can't spend too much time out in the heat, a lot of the work was done in the evening, 6pm it had cooled down to about 30 °C, and I mean that, it was ridiculous, I only did one session on Saturday morning and one of the players actually said : "coach, you will need a cap", and I said that I didn't wear caps for training, and he came back and I was looking for him to say where is that cap? I did need one.
JP
Did you look a bit like Tony Pulis then out there?
GA
Worse, oh with the cap you mean? Yeah, I did yeah, and the red head I think to match. It has been a terrific time.
JP
I believe the games with Aruba have been put back a little bit, how are you going to find sitting waitiing to hear how they have got on? It will be hard for you won't it?
GA
Yeah, I was actually thinking of flying out of my own accord but it is too close to us coming back, I think the second game may be the 26th of June or something like that. But, they are going to contact me anyway, I was on about going out of my own accord and the President wasn't having it, he said that if I wanted to come then they would fund it, which is phenomenal really because money out there is totally different to here, there is not a great deal of it about and the football has not had its resources.
But, they are putting lots of things in place and success would go hand in hand, it is like anything, the same principle over here, the better you do the more money they can throw at it and the more credibility it gets. But, the President said that if I wanted to come then they would fund it, which was a fantastic gesture. But, I have been away for two weeks already from home, I had had a long season away so to do that would be probably difficult for me.
But, with the telephone, the text and the internet I am sure I will be able to find out the result. But, I am hoping, I really am, and I said that the message to them afterwards was we are going to win, it was like a we, I was part of them, we are going to win, we are going to beat Aruba. So, I just really wish them all the best because they were a really good group of people.
JP
We had Paul Murray on one of our shows recently talking about various things, but also talking about how the kids over in English football perhaps have it a bit easy and they perhaps need to have to work a bit harder. When you see the lads out there working so hard with so little to try to accomplish what they can, does it make you want to come back here and get more out of everybody?
GA
Do you know what? That was one of the things that what it made me want to do was take our youth team over, and Eric (Kinder) is in now and I am going to speak to Eric, but I wanted to take our youth team over to show them how their kids had to fight and scrap for their future. One lad who I possibly am going to bring into England so he can compare with what I have got, a big lad, 6'2, pace and great physique, he is not in touch with his parents and he has to sell fruit to provide money for his family, his little brother.
That is an unbelievable story but the kid has got genuine ability and if it is much longer then he will lose sight of that and he will have to fend for his family even more and take his eye off the football. But, he deserves an opoortunity and I think he is as good as what we have got over here. But, he is not going to come on trial and we are possibly going to bring two lads over, not for a trial, we just want to see the comparison.
But, that is just a story of how difficult it is for him to make a living and football is a way out for them, that is why they are hungry, it could give them a financial package to go back home and buy a nice house and surroundings for their families. That is why the visit struck up a bit of a route for them out, some of them, not all of them but some of them.
There are all different levels of standards and some of the players are OK and some of them will have to work harder than others, but the facilities and the way that they get to the training, the food and all that that we take lifts and stuff and computers and televisions we take for granted, it is not all there over there. But, their attitude to the work was unbelievable.
The FA there only want to deal with Carlisle, they don't even want to deal with the Premier League clubs because they want to deal with me and Carlisle on a personal thing because the lads now know me. They are going to come eight hours across the world, they need to know that they are going to deal with somebody that is going to be honest with them, that is going to look after them and give them an honest opinion, and the President and Ces are keen for that to happen.
I have got to speak to John (Nixon) this afternoon to give him a report, a full report, we are going to give that back to St Lucia, hopefully then we might be able to tie in an agreement that everybody wins, the players, the country and Carlisle United. That really is cost effective, it is not going to cost anything unless one of the players finds his way through to a level, I am sure that will happen, if it doesn't happen this year then it will happen, that is an absolute certainty because we can get these players at 16, which is the key age.
Once they have gone past that I think it is going to be more difficult, I have told them exactly what I think. I can go over there and I want to have a look at the younger players, the 12,13,14-year olds because they are the ones that might be the ones that we end up getting through to league level. But, I wouldn't discount the two I am bringing because they looked to have lots of ability and lots of potential.
JP
And what about yourself? I am sure you will want to get Carlisle, we know you want to get Carlisle up into the Championship and one day manage them in the Premier League, but this taste of international football and all the trimmings of that, has that made you maybe set your sights a little bit higher now?
GA
Erm, not really, because as an international team they are right down the rankings order and they are still fighting to get their structure in place. It is not like going to Germany and being in charge of the German national team, but certainly anything to do with the national team gives you a massive buzz. But, at the minute I have got a tough enough job in England getting Carlisle United into the top six, so let's leave it at that for now.