John Nixon - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 19 February 2010 By Thetashkentterror

John Nixon
United director John Nixon spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips on Friday evening ahead of Carlisle's League One game at Swindon tomorrow, Nixon though first talking about the decision this week to give Blues manager Greg Abbott a one year contract extension :


" It isn't a decision that was taken in the last two weeks. We have been talking to Greg actively for the last three or the four months now and the plans we have been making with Greg, and Greg has been making himself, have been long term plans. So there has never really been an indication, even from October or November onwards that we weren't looking towards next season.

" So his team building plans, the players he has been bringing in, people like Tom Taiwo, they have all been looked at from a longer term point of view. So it isn't something that has come as a shock to Greg, it isn't something that has come as a shock to us, it is just a natural thing to do.

" It would have been wrong to sit back and dot the i's and cross the t's around the Wembley period, because it would have focused everybody onto that. So we have just formally sort of said let's put this to bed now the way we have been talking in the past.

" I think the big issue is, as I have said to some other people, is that Greg has been learning the job and we have been learning the job, so we are all growing up in this thing together. What we do like is the way he is trying to improve the stock of players that we have got.

" So generally he has always tried to look in the Premier League or the Championship for players that have played at that level, that will actually improve the playing stock of the club. So that is the sort of thing that we like because that shows the ambition that we have to get into the Championship, which is our first and clear ambition now. "



" We think that he can do that and it has been a relationship shall we say that has developed as we have developed. Because we are a group of, originally four, but now three of us, and we have developed with him.

" I think it puts the cherry on top of the cake to go to Wembley, but it had been a really good season if we hadn't got to Wembley. You have got to remember that we got further in the League Cup than we have been before, we got further through to the third round of the FA Cup, which is a long time since we did that.

" To get as far as the Johnstone's Paint Area Final was really, really good. So it had been a successful season, and I must admit that I am fairly philosophical about these things. I think that we had begun to turn the season round financially anyway, we had the first half of the year which turned in a small profit of just under £100,000.

" The second half of the year was always going to be difficult, the game at Everton and where we have got to at the Area Final was always going to help us with that. Going to Wembley is really the cherry on the top but it had been a successful season.

" Like I say, I am fairly philosophical, I was looking at the whole thing and thinking that if we went out at this point it has been good, if we get further it will be great, and that is where we are. I don't think there is too much to resolve on the pitch, he is clearly looking now forward to next season and beyond, and I think that is a good thing. "



" In terms of the Wembley ticket sales I have just had a very quick call now and somebody has just said to me that they think they have cleared about 6,000 tickets today already. So that is well over a quarter, I don't know what the telephone sales and the internet sales have been so that is probably over and above.

" We have taken a significant amount of cash today which we have got to obviously send to the Football League. We were at the stage where we were quite surprised at the length of the queues, there are still people there now, the ticket office is open until 7pm tonight, so we are really pleased with what has happened today. We have just got to build on that success.

" Greg has been looking at the contracts of some of the players over the last three or four months, which is what I alluded to when I said that Greg's future was always quite secure. Because he was always looking at the long term, October, November, December onwards. So some of the players have already been approached, some more players have got to be approached.

" Greg is going to be sitting down and working out who and what and where and when, and then I will take it from there. But we have got a fairly good idea, because it isn't something that we sit down one Monday morning and say to talk about the players. It is something that we do almost on a week by week basis.

" Greg is in and out of my office every day and so I know what he is feeling, I know what he thinks, I know what he wants to do. I discuss it with Andrew (Jenkins) and Steven (Pattison) and it goes from there. So we are pretty clear on where we want to go and when he decides that he wants to do it at any point in time, because timing is important from his point of view, then we do it. "