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It remains to be seen whether or not the bid from Darlington was a serious one or one to test the water, but Carlisle owner Fred Story has turned the deal down flat, commenting to the News and Star : "Darlington have shown an interest, but this is a player issue and it will always be the manager who makes the decision on that. As with any player, if someone comes in with a bid which allows our manager to strengthen the team from where we were prior to the bid, we will consider it.
"Neil McDonald is new to Carlisle and we won't be making any decision on selling players until Neil has assessed the strengths and weaknesses of the squad. The position hasn't changed. We don't want or need to sell players. My only wish is to continue strengthening the squad, not to cash in on our good players. I'm not interested in cashing in. Everything I'm about is strengthening the club but all of that comes to nothing if we don't have a successful team on the pitch."
The Quakers have already signed five players, incidentally all on free transfers, this summer, so it seems somewhat surprising that they would put all their eggs in one basket in an effort to snap up Bridges. Especially when the £250,000 Darlington have offered is nearly three times the Quakers' record fee of £95,000 they paid out for Motherwell's Nick Cusack in 1992. Darlington boss David Hodgson missed out on Bridges last season when the former Sunderland and Leeds United star opted to join Carlisle from Bristol City on a free transfer seven months ago, but he certainly seems keen to sign him now.