By way of a reminder that there is always someone much less fortunate than yourself, Carlisle United today go to Leyton Orient: 23rd in League Two and whose owner appears to tick most of the boxes if you were designing a person to destabilise a once-admired football club.

As though living up to some bad stereotype of Italian football supremos, Francesco Becchetti is on his 10th manager in two-and-a-half years, a policy that has given the Os an even chance of starting next season in non-league.

It is a far cry from the time when, as recently as 2014, they were a penalty shoot-out away from the Championship, and with all this in mind the only surprise is that, in a poll by the Against League Three campaign to find the country's best owners, Becchetti finished as high as 86th.

Seventh worst, in other words, and nobody would realistically dispute his position amongst other controversial figures like Roland Duchatelet, SISU, the Oystons, the Allams, Venky's and Fawaz Al-Hasawi.

In this context it is bracing to find Carlisle's own owners just three places above Becchetti, ranked 10th worst, and while one survey may not be exhaustive the respondents do appear to have got it right with those others near the very bottom of the list.

At the very least, then, it is a guide, and a closer look at how Carlisle fans voted is further revealing. It may also help explain why Tuesday's deadline-day business - the sale of Charlie Wyke, the arrival in his place of two loanees - was met in some quarters with something close to cynicism.

Some 138 United supporters took part in the overall survey, while of the 94 who voted on the particular question of how happy they would be if the same regime was in place in five years' time, not one declared they would be "very happy" and only four felt "moderately happy". Meanwhile, 69 opted for "very unhappy" and 18 "moderately unhappy".

That is 92.5 per cent at the negative end. Asked for their overall opinion, just one of 97 fans gave United's owners 10 out of 10, with 73 scoring them at three or less. In more detailed feedback, recurring topics included the owners' communication with and attitude towards fans. One example comment was: "Did you hear the joke about the mystery foreign billionaire investor?!!"

The men who dominate United's shareholdings may be bemused at this. Perhaps they disregard it. But at best one has to conclude there is an image problem they have failed to shake off, and it is difficult not to think that a certain lack of belief in the regime is one of the reasons why crowd numbers are not surging along with Carlisle's lofty position in League Two.

In a BBC Radio Cumbria interview last year Nigel Clibbens, the chief executive, questioned whether there was a direct link between investment scepticism (the "potential overseas investor" saga is now 627 days old) and the lack of an attendance spike. United's crowds were, in fact, on the increase, he pointed out.

It is true that eight afternoon home league games this season have broken the 5,000 mark, yet things do not compare favourably with some of Carlisle's previous promotion challenges. The last time United went up from League Two, 2005/6, they were routinely pulling in more than 6,000 even at this time of year. En route to fourth in League One in 2007/8, things were often at 6-7,000.

Both those campaigns saw Carlisle at their highest for a number of years - and it is also true that coming out of a long dark era tends to bring people back. Compared with this, United were also going for Division Three glory in 1996/7 but not with quite the same gusto as two years before, when the most successful campaign in their history (points-wise) was unfolding. Come '97, Carlisle had been promoted and relegated in consecutive seasons and, though still generally a positive place, a sense was perhaps spreading that Michael Knighton's grand promises were going to take a more complicated path than imagined.

Hence, maybe, the fact that Saturday crowds fell as low as 4,958 even whilst in the top three. It all suggests the wider climate may indeed have an effect, and the fact Carlisle drew just 4,547 for Barnet's visit last weekend is hardly, whichever way it is spun, an endorsement of everything happening at Brunton Park right now.

That modest attendance came in spite of Keith Curle's appeal for more fans to help improve his budget. At the same time, though, a remarkable crowdfunding initiative did gain serious traction and its total, now beyond £12,000, is a strong window onto the community feeling and affection for United that still exists.

It is this that those at the helm have found difficult to harness. At executive level there have been efforts to pull different parts of the fanbase closer (the Carlisle United Supporters' Groups an example) but Curle himself said he had expected gates to be higher by now, considering the Blues' overall progress.

Clearly, people are underwhelmed or sceptical about something. Given that Curle and his team have been a credit for most of this season, what is it, if not the "billionaire" drag and what it says about those involved?

The question surely ought to be interrogated at a deep level and, though difficult to read, certain views should also be examined, including one respondent to AL3 who painted a critical picture: the ongoing debt to 80-year-old Andrew Jenkins, the plethora of Football League and Football Association positions enjoyed by John Nixon, how Steven Pattison has spoken to certain fans when challenged at games and forums, and the rejecting of local investment offers.

In these conditions it was not all that surprising how some reacted to Wyke's departure, even if a release clause in the striker's contract was always going to limit Carlisle's options. Naturally, the fee was "undisclosed", as much at Bradford's behest as United's, no doubt, and while this is increasingly the way of things one cannot help thinking that, if there was ever a case for a disclosed fee it was here, given that everyone knows it anyway (£250,000) and it wouldn't take a sleuth at any rival club to guess how much is on its way into the kitty.

This, alas, is football's culture, not simply Carlisle's, yet it was more easy meat for those who don't think those at the very top of the Blues embrace their people or share very much with them.

The truth, which always tends to lie somewhere in the middle of polar opinions, is that the club is, in fact, proactive in a number of respects - Curle generally strikes an outward-looking tone, for example, whilst the Blues' media team could not have been more helpful on deadline day - but it is plain that there are many out there who do not associate the qualities of being open and progressive with all of United right now.

This may be sad, it may be harsh and there are days like today when it feels close to an insult to put Carlisle's owners on the same spreadsheet as loons like Becchetti. But that does not make it a problem that can be comfortably swatted away.