Out With The Old, In With The Old

Brunton Park changes hands

The rumour mill has finally closed today as a 2pm press conference at the club signalled not very much of a new dawn for Cumbria's only professional football club. Before this afternoon the directors of Carlisle United were Fred Story, Steven Pattison, Andrew Jenkins, John Nixon, David Allen, Norman Steele, Philip Day, Lord Clark of Windermere and Dick Young.

After the takeover though they all still remain, bar Fred Story, after the former owner sold his 100 shares in CUFC Holdings (which owns 93% of the club) to Allen, Jenkins, Nixon and Pattison for an undisclosed fee. The remaining 34 shares in CUFC Holdings will stay in the hands of the United Trust, which has Steele as its representative on the Carlisle United board.

As for their roles within the football club, Allen will be chief executive and finance director, Pattison becomes football director, Jenkins remains as chairman and Nixon stays as managing director. Allen seems to be the frontman for the quartet of new owners, his accounting company being the club auditor until he was required to resign from that post when he became a United director this January due to a conflict of interest.

Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Freddie Shepherd were amongst many horses in the running in the rumour stakes once it became evident many months ago that Story was looking to sell his shares in the club. It was former owner John Courtenay though who looked to be the odds-on shot all the way only for the "gang of four" to fly in on the rails and land the spoils.

Where this all leaves the club is the big question. As is always the case with football club takeovers the first thing the fans are looking for is money to be ploughed into the playing squad by the new owners. Well that looks highly unlikely, with Allen particularly keen to stress the way the club has come on in the last few years due to a successful business model.

Purely from a supporter perspective the takeover isn't very inspiring, nearly all of the old board remain and an injection of fresh money into Carlisle United is therefore a non-starter. At a time when fans were hoping for exciting news ahead of a real Championship promotion-push next season the atmosphere today is much flatter than we had all been hoping for.

The sale of Keiren Westwood was inevitable, but with Joe Garner seemingly on his way and Danny Livesey being linked with Hibs the new owners could already be off to a bad start on the public relations front. Depending on who comes in and goes out of the Carlisle squad in the next few weeks it could prove to be a very interesting season for the new men at the helm.