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" Of course it's important that we get the squad organised as soon as we possibly can. You'll be very, very lucky though if you have a complete squad by the time the players come back, although we've been fortunate enough to get four in. We're in contact with players, we're in talks with centre-halves and we're hopeful that within the next few days that we'll have something to tell everybody. It's behind the scenes though, it's being patient, as I've said before we've got four in which is excellent. It would be great if we could add another couple to that which would make the squad very, very strong for next season.
" We need a couple of centre-halves in and we probably need another centre-forward in just to have that extra competition, if we can get another wide man as well that would be the icing on the cake I suppose. We want competition all the way through the team, you know for a fact that we play 4-3-3 and sometimes we play 4-4-2, if we get that then it gives us lots of options to play either.
" They are permanent deals, we are looking to do permanent deals at the moment, we've brought four in which is excellent. I think it's vitally important right from the start that we sign players and they have an identity with Carlisle. If we get a couple of injuries or we don't secure the ones that we want then we have always got loans to shore us up, I think the loans worked excellently last season.
" We've been very fortunate to bring the four in, we've been chasing a few and to get the four in is excellent. I wouldn't want to say that we have missed out on certain players, we're still chasing and we're very, very hopeful that we can add to the squad that we have already got. I think our reputation has been enhanced by the way we have played some football, we've had some great support as well which gets about. "
" People that we play against in our league have commented on that, I think Marc Bridge-Wilkinson actually said that himself, that he really enjoyed the way we played in the three games that we played, and that he enjoyed the support that we had. We're enhancing the club's reputation all the way through, it's good to try to sell a club that has finished in the top eight knowing that we are trying to strengthen. If they come to our football club then that can only make us stronger.
" He (Simon Hackney) has been working extremely hard over the summer, I hope he has had a couple of weeks off. He has been working with the physiotherapist Neil Dalton on his fitness and his rehabilitation, he should be ready and raring to come back. He is an exciting player going forward, of course he is, that's what we need in this league because it is going to be a very, very tough league. If we have players who can open the door and create chances for other people, Simon is certainly one of those.
" It's certainly competitive in the league, the three teams that were even relegated last year only came in to form towards the end of the season so they should be a threat. The four that are coming up will try and do what we did last year and start off really well, and try to impose themselves. Then you have got the three big guns who have just been relegated who want to go straight back up again.
" Then you have Nottingham Forest, Yeovil and Oldham who got knocked out in the play-offs who will be wanting to emulate what they did last season so it is going to be a very competitive and very difficult league. It is one though that we are looking forward to, looking forward to the challenge and if we can bring an extra couple of bodies in to make sure that there is loads of competition for places then we'll have a fantastic season I'm sure.
" We're all captains on the pitch all the way through the goalkeeper to the centre-forward, we all have a say and we all lead by example. There is plenty of time to choose a captain, there is plenty of experience in the team, and plenty of players who would love to be captain of Carlisle. We'll slowly make our mind up on that but we've still got plenty of time, we've got six to eight weeks to decide on that. "
" I think you are looking to have more than one person leading, we've got a lot of experience in the team and we've got a fine mixture of up-and-coming promising youngsters as well and having that balance is great. Young players always look up to the older ones and the older ones always try to lead by example to show the young ones how to do it. We have that, we've got Paul Thirlwell, Danny Livesey, David Raven and even Keiren Westwood who are experienced at this level, we've got plenty of time to decide it that's for sure.
" I was very, very conscious of the lack of travelling in the pre-season friendlies. Because towards the end of last season when we'd found out who was getting relegated and who was coming up we looked at the fixtures and almost said 'my goodness me, we've got 13 teams who are south of or level with Luton.' So that's a hell of a lot of travelling, so we were very, very conscious on trying to make sure that the supporters didn't travel too far in pre-season.
" We've got Barrow, we've got Morecambe which is definitely an hour or so away, and then Queen of the South which is only just up the road. Then the three fantastic games at home which I think everybody should be looking forward to. I'm sure the players when they come back on Monday will be really excited when they find out who we are playing at home. Middlesbrough, Newcastle and I think Blackpool is a fantastic game to finish off leading up to the week of work for the first game of the season.
" Swansea has been changed, Cheltenham has been changed and then we've got Bristol Rovers just before the turn of the year. It's not ideal, sometimes that is out of our hands, it's sometimes police, they organise the thing and they can ask if they change it because something else is on. We have to take advice off them as well so it's not always our fault. It is disappointing that our fans have to travel so far on a night game but sometimes you get fixtures like that and we have to put up with it. I'm sure if we are playing some good football though there will be a fantastic following like there was last season.
" We will be trying to build up their fitness in the first week but it's all football orientated. We had a successful pre-season last year, we didn't get any injuries which was great and everyone was fit and ready for the first game. We'll try to improve on that a little bit by adding a little bit and making it a tiny touch harder to make sure that we are on a different level to the one we were on last season. "