Carlisle United's chief executive...on boardroom roles, the 'billionaire' and fan representation

The way things operate inside clubs always varies hugely from how people think they work. In simple terms, football clubs have got lots going on, but it's all relatively straightforward behind the scenes.

I've seen those criticisms, but from my experience I haven't seen anything to say there's any kind of issues with who runs the club. I think that when the new directors were appointed before I came, there was a changearound, and that MD position went away, Suzanne and Phil have been left to get on with the day-to-day running of the club. I don't see any evidence that they haven't.

In terms of doing deals, because John is the most expert person the club has for doing transfer transactions, it's only natural he'd be involved in those. But that's not to say he runs the club - that's just finishing deals off.

As John said, in his interview on the radio recently, that would continue for this window, but already I'm seeing that the transition's happening already. And I did all that work at Huddersfield before I came here. So it's part and parcel of what I bring to the table. There is a transition.

I think the general perception maybe goes back to the frustrations about how the club operates, and what people actually do. If we sit here now, I can be really crystal clear in how things work. We have three working directors, myself, Suzanne and Phil, each of us responsible for specific aspects of the running of the club directly.

As we sit here now, they look after almost all aspects, and I just sit alongside them, giving them support and making some of the decisions. But each of them has a specific department to run. John's role now, as it has been before, is purely to deal with football transfer dealings, and that's transitioning away from him towards me, and that will be complete as we get to the end of the August window, and to provide the link between the club and the Football League and the FA.

As far as day to day is concerned, he has no real involvement in the decision making. He's there for us if we want to ask him anything, but as far as pulling the strings, I think that's a bit disrespectful.

John's an excellent operator in terms of what he does, and his track record, so I think that's a bit unfair to say that. But we've all got clear roles and responsibilities about what we're doing going forward, and that's the key bit.

HOW DOES YOUR ROLE ON THE OPERATIONAL BOARD INTERACT WITH THE HOLDING COMPANY BOARD - ARE YOU AUTHORISED TO SPEAK FOR THE LATTER ON BIG ISSUES?

We're working through restructuring how the board structures work. To put it simply we're trying to create a structure where the day to day running of the club and implementation of the plans is clearly and identifiably with the executive directors - me, Suzanne and Phil, supported by John in his external role. And segregate that from the strategic management of the club, which will be undertaken by the holding board.

We're looking at defining roles and responsibilities, that is part of what I'm doing now - to say those are the areas the holdings board should focus on, those are the areas the operational board should focus on, so that everybody knows where things sit and we can operate more effectively.

It would be the operational board's responsibility to implement the long-term plans that are approved by the holdings board. There's a lot of detail we're going into. Who hires executives, what mandates they have to do their job, what power and authority they have…we're trying to get the club really clear and easy to operate.

That's just a matter of time. As far as the supporters are concerned, are they going to notice anything different? Probably not. It's just a very much internal way of working, and it makes the club then more able to deal with investment. And to organise itself to deal with longer-term challenges, better able to set out its plans and make them happen, and if they don't happen, sort them out.

DO YOU FEEL THE CLUB HAS STRUGGLED TO GET ITS MESSAGE ACROSS ABOUT INVESTMENT, FOR INSTANCE THE 'BILLIONAIRE'?

From my own personal perspective on what I've seen before I came since I've come in, I think that the general supporters and the community I would say are frustrated by what's happened, and I think that comes from probably a number of reasons.

This is just my take on it. The first is when you're talking in terms of how potential investors have been described. It can raise expectations, excitement, and interest, and then a desire to see things happen. You've got that situation to deal with.

As time goes on, depending on what happens, the perception of how it's been handled can change. If you start off from a position that's quite excited, and then you feel that nothing much is happening - because that's the impression I'm getting, the feeling that nothing's happening, and maybe it isn't in public, but things are happening behind the scenes - that can lead to frustrations and then all kinds of consequences that flow through from that.

It brings added pressure, added spotlight, which makes it more difficult to get things done in my view. There's no doubt there's been elements of all these factors taking place. The nature of any kind of investment in any business - and football's different in that everything's in the spotlight - the nature is when you try to do deals, you have to go at the pace as determined by the slowest of the parties you're dealing with. Whilst you may want to go quickly, and you've got your pressures, others may not have and want to go at their own pace. You might want to speed them up but you might not want to speed them up to such an extent that you chase them away.

There's all kinds of fine balances. Football is a public interest business, so people want to know what’s going on, there's a clamour for it. You've got papers to fill, there's messageboards, people are interested. You can't hide away from that, but it creates its own dynamics on how you deal with it.

In that context, if there's a clamour for information, based on what's happened in the past, and there's a vacuum where there is no information, again that can create issues. But what do you fill that vacuum with? You don't want to prejudice what you're trying to do. It is a fine balance keeping all these issues going along together.

I think all those factors have been at play here. For varying degrees. I wouldn't say anybody's to blame, whether that's the club, individuals, or the press even. I know people say - 'the press, you're fuelling this', but I don't look at it like that, it's just the nature of the environment.

What you have to not lose sight of is that lots of football clubs have sought investment, lots of clubs have not got the investment that they might have hoped when they started the process, there's been lots of false dawns. My view is you've got to do what it takes to get the right investment in. Not necessarily the quickest.

YOU AND OTHERS AT THE CLUB HAVE SAID YOU'D LIKE THE BILLIONAIRE SITUATION TO BE RESOLVED BEFORE THE SEASON? IS THAT REALISTIC?

I said on the radio a few weeks ago, in my view, and I explained this to the board, there needed to be clarity on where this was going, and there needed to be progress on it.

In an ideal world you'd like to resolve things so that things are done and dusted, but that isn't necessarily always possible. But it's really important when, coming into a new season, the sun's shining today, there's progress made in recovering from the flood, we've got a feel-good factor around the club, we need to keep that momentum going, and keep making progress forward.

That's what it's all about for me, not stalling or stopping. Whether it's building things, getting investment, improving all aspects of the club, you've got to keep stepping forward every single day, getting those one per cents and improving.

I think it's good that message is getting through, that we're trying to get there, and there's an impetus to make some progress. Because it's needed. It's not unreasonable. That helps everybody - the owners, and the trust. And the fans and the community.

Hopefully we'll be able to deliver that, because it's what's needed and what we're trying to do. There's no guarantees we're going to be able to do it but we must do our very best to do what we can to do it.

It's a major strategic issue for the club. Being realistic, when you've got something like that it doesn't happen overnight. It can be a winding road to get where you want to be, but you have to keep going in the right direction towards it.

BUT IT HAS BEEN OVER A YEAR NOW, AND STILL NOTHING…

I look from where I am now. I'm dealing with week six [since I started], so whilst the club and fans might be frustrated, I can't rewrite the history. What I've got to do is try and instil some impetus to get this moving forward.

THE CLUB HAS DROPPED ITS SUPPORTER REPRESENTATIVE POSITION ON THE BOARD AFTER ONE SEASON. WHAT'S YOUR VIEW ON THAT?

It's an interesting one, because there's fan ownership, and that comes with a seat on the board. There's representation there, legally, long-term, in there [with CUOSC]. Most clubs don't have that at all.

Additionally there was then extra fan involvement. I can't comment on the whys and wherefores of the change, but clearly from a club point of view that wasn't working. A decision was taken to take a pause and a time-out on that one.

I'm of the view that the club has to have strong engagement with the fans. I think that it's got representation on its board with the trust, so what having another fan representation, as an outsider looking at this cold…it's hard for me to say what additional engagement that brings.

BUT SOME PEOPLE FELT THE POSITION BENEFITED FROM BEING AN INDIVIDUAL WHO WAS NOT AFFILIATED TO ANY GROUP, AND WAS VERY MUCH INDEPENDENT?

Yeah, but I would then look and say the trust [are] representing a broad constituency of fans from its membership. And they're there. If we get the communication right, I think having a supporter shareholder as a director, with the other things that we do, I think that should make the club able to give the supporters what they need.

The challenge for us is to reach out to supporters, not just the ones on the board…reach out to everybody, a broader base, and that's what we're trying to do through interviews like this, being on the radio, being accessible.

SOME PEOPLE ARGUE, THOUGH, THAT CUOSC DON'T REPRESENT THEM, AND FELT THE FAN REP, CLAIRE WINDER, DID SPEAK FOR THEM. SO HOW MUCH OF A CHALLENGE IS THIS?

I can't speak for the trust. I've been to a couple of meetings with them, and relations have started on a good and positive footing, so long may that continue. I think in the same way as the club has always got to look at how it engages with its supporters and communicates with them and builds trust, I'm sure they're looking at it in the same way.

A football club needs its supporters, and a fan body representing supporters needs to have a constituency of fans who it's representing. That's not rocket science. There's challenges for everybody. The issues around the club and its development are not just for the individual shareholders.

There's bigger things to deal with here, but they're not unfixable. But focus on the past has maybe been on one individual, like at Notts County, that doesn't show the whole picture. There's a lot of things where working together for the good of the club, where everyone to a man and woman who I've met wants to see the club successful, and that's the key to unlocking everything.

WILL YOU SEEK OUT CLAIRE FOR HER PARTICULAR INSIGHT INTO HER YEAR ON THE BOARD?

Yeah, I'm speaking to anybody who's prepared to meet me and speak to me. My door's always open. I'm sure in time we will talk. This club's not a closed shop. We're here for the fans, we need more fans to come and we need more to understand and buy into what we're doing.

I'm sure I will meet her in due course and it would be a good conversation to have, to get her take on it. I'm speaking to people and saying, 'Give me your take on Carlisle, warts and all,' so I can get a broad view on what this is all about here.

*Tomorrow: Clibbens on the EFL Trophy controversy and social media pitfalls