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" It's shifted on very quickly obviously, only four weeks until pre-season. I've not been away yet, I'm on my way tomorrow for a brief holiday and then we are very quickly back into the routine of things and cracking on again. Which is fine, I think that the players will be OK for that, but when you talk to them about that at the moment it doesn't seem long.
" I think that the squad itself is generally settled, we've got the majority of the players on contract anyway for at least another year and some for two and on. So that side of it is not so bad, I'd like two or three new faces but I haven't got the panics on that they have got to be there for day one. That's not something that often happens in my experience, we might get one in or we might get two in but there are certainly other things that will take effect as that time moves on.
" Players at the moment, a lot of them are away on holiday, as are managers and other people concerned with clubs. Although it is not going to affect us with players, there are the European Championships starting this weekend, that means that a lot of other managers will probably be away. When the end of this month comes around it's usually my experience that players start to worry a little bit that they haven't got a club.
" Because at the moment they are happy enough to play the field and see if there is a better offer around the corner. Things will then develop and they will happen so there is a not a mad rush for myself in terms of lots of players in and lots of players out. It's a small number in that we hope will improve the squad and if we can do that correctly then the time is immaterial.
" I am very much aware of the stories surrounding Grant (Holt), but it is something that I have batted off at the moment. I've said that it's not necessary, we'll get Joe (Garner) back by Christmas. I know that seems a long way off at the moment but we've got Danny Graham who has got sixteen goals. We've got Scott (Dobie) who we brought in primarily to go upfront and has played wide right, so if we can restablish that we'd like to. "
" Then we have got young Gary Madine coming through, I still think that there is something from Danny Carlton yet to see, I may be right and I may be wrong but I think it's right that he has the pre-seasonal opportunity to see that come through. If that is the case then that's fine, it's not something that we'll rule out altogether, not just with Grant, but with a forward player. There is something that we could possibly do on a loan period that would buy us the time for Joe Garner to come through.
" Joe is doing really well by the way, I was with Neil Dalton this morning in the office and he was just saying that he has got up to the moment where he can do some light jogging. Which for a player is fantastic because it gets him out of that treatment room and away from the static exercises and up and down the steps. It gets his boots on and on the grass which is a real encouragement to a long-term injury like Joe's.
" I had a year out similar to Joe, I came back after a cartilage. In those days a cartilage wasn't the keyhole and back in a fortnight, it was 12 days in hospital and a big operation. It went wrong and I had to go back in in the January, I played two or three games and it wasn't right. I finished up with the whole season and came back the following year, so I have had that length of time.
" It's the initial period that is the tough bit, like I have said with Joe, the first three months, which is now completed, where it's static work and up and down the steps rebuilding the quadricep muscles above the knee. To get out on the pitch and on the grass though is a big boost to the confidence. I don't think that it will make him any quicker coming back but it is a real boost at this time for him.
" There is always that area in your mind that it could go again, there but for the grace of God go a lot of players that don't get those injuries. Certainly when you do though you get your quiet moments when you are thinking the worst. Joe is a very confident, positive young man and he keeps telling people that he will be back the quickest of anybody from this type on injury. Which is going to stand him in good stead anyway but nature has to take it's course. It needs that repair to be made and it needs the work to be done. "
" There was interest in him last January, as you know we turned down one offer that was a good one for us at that time. If I can go back on that side of it though, then we'll probably be forever thinking what if Joe had been fit for the remainder of the final fifteen games of the season as well. I think that we would all have preferred a fit Joe Garner for the last fifteen games and then dealt with the consequences when they came up.
" What will be will be and what has happened has happened, so we've got to deal with it, we know that we won't get him back until Christmas. We've got to be in a good position though, and that is the key for the rest of the squad, to make sure that we are in a good position come Christmas when Joe is fit. Because in six to eight months time he can be a big asset for us.
" We've tried on Keiren Westwood, certainly Fred Story has tried through Keiren's agent. Keiren has been busy with the Irish squad, I've kept in touch with Keiren but we've not really talked contracts, it's just been about his situation with the football. Fred has dealt with the agent on that, that seems to have stalled a little bit in terms of Keiren. So what are we going to do?, last time I spoke to Keiren he said that he would see me on the 3rd of July, but we don't think that there will be a new contract by that stage.
" So we're waiting on possibly that those offers might come in now, we've had some tentative enquiries from two or three football clubs, nothing more than that. We're resigned though that that is something that might happen a little more concrete in the next week or so. We're going to have deal with that as it happens, so we'll wait and see.
" We have been trying for some time, it's not just now, we've been trying for some time to get Keiren on a new contract, it's not as if we have been caught cold. If another 12 months time elapses, then at the end of that contract Keiren can go for free anywhere he wishes. In six months time, the 1st of January, he is entitled to have conversations with other clubs about joining them at the end of that contract."
" If there is to be any business done financially for Carlisle United then it needs to be done now because it will be worth more to us than it would be in January for instance. Which would be the last chance saloon in terms of a business deal. So it's something that, we're not pushing out at everybody, but it's something that we are waiting to see may happen at this stage.
" We'd all like to keep Keiren, I don't think that the supporters would argue with that, but at the same time they wouldn't begrudge them the opportunity of moving on to another club. It happens in football, sometimes Carlisle United can't keep people, but I think that the big plus out of it is that Keiren has been recognised at international level while playing for Carlisle United. I think that is a great credit to the player and a great credit to the club as well.
" He has been voted the best goalkeeper in this league by his peers in the PFA team. He has been voted player of the season by his own supporters, the young man has achieved some really big things this season. Then to cap it all he has been recognised at international level, and I think that that signifies that there is a growing appreciation of his ability by other people in the game. We're expecting that maybe to come through in the next week or so as I have said.
" I haven't spoken to Paul (Reid) since he left before the Bournemouth game, we left a message with him because at that stage he was still receiving some treatment, but he hasn't come back to me yet. We're monitoring it from a distance but there is nothing more than that happened. I've spoken to Grant (Smith), I met Grant in Manchester a week or so ago just before he went on holiday, so we've had a further chat and again I have got to come back to him.
" I haven't heard anything back from Luke Joyce, the players need to know, it's a strange one really in some ways. The players get to know within four days of the final game of the season, then they have something like three or four weeks to let us know. So it lies with the players a little bit better than the clubs at the moment, but having said that I've spoken to Grant but not to Luke. "
" I know about Richie (Foran), Richie was here when I was at the club before with Paul Simpson. So I know a bit about Richie and I've spoken to him when he was down at Southend. He's not a player that I would move for at this time though. I can say that there have no other enquiries for our players, we've had a couple of tentative calls regarding Keiren and it has been nothing more than that. None of the other players, I haven't received any phone calls about them, so hopefully it will stay that way. I'm going out of the way for a bit and hopefully it will be still quiet when I come back.
" John Terry for me as the England captain, I just think that he epitomises the captaincy type of player that maintains respect from his team-mates. I think that was ultimately apparent on the day that he missed a penalty in the Champions League final. That everybody to a man came to his defence, there were very, very few people that vilified him for having missed a penalty. There was a lot of defending on his behalf in terms of that. I just think that it is that character, that not only did he do that but he came back and scored the goal for England a week later.
" The man for me just typifies what is required in a captain, you get totally the 100% best from him every time he plays. When he can do that himself then he has got to demand that from his team-mates. I've got nothing against (Rio) Ferdinand, I'm not sure why the captaincy has been given to so many different people, I just think John Terry, as simple as that.
" I think if crying is done deliberately for the cameras, or for that kind of reason, for the self-pity, then it is for that reason. I think though that we all accept that it is a magnificently emotional game, and the fact that we don't know what is going to happen to it, shows that some people deal with it differently. I don't have a major problem with that, in terms of players, because the one thing, John Terry may get massive wages and everything, but what he can't buy is that Champions League winners medal.
" I think that is what keeps those guys going, when it gets that close and it goes away from them, then the losers medal is not important at all. It's getting those winners names behind your name, and I'm fine with that. I just think that it is different people, I think that sport and life takes things, this men shouldn't cry business is a load of codswallop for me. If people are emotional about something then I don't have a problem with them showing it. What's the problem if your feelings are there for people to see? "