Keith Curle has stressed he will not "leave himself short" despite his need to ship players out of Carlisle United in order to afford new signings.

The Blues manager has made it clear that he must create space on the wage bill so new faces can come in.

But Curle is also conscious that he does not have a huge squad at his disposal at Brunton Park.

And he said he will be determined to strike a balance between making room for signings and retaining important back-up for his first-choice players.

"I'm not going to leave myself short," Curle said.

"Hopefully it's going to be hand in glove, where finances are relieved by players going out, but [then] spent to bring in better players."

Curle has yet to offload anyone this week following last Friday's decision to allow David Atkinson to extend his loan at Blyth Spartans by another month.

He has been linked with Chesterfield's Gary Liddle but talk of a deal in the early part of this week proved premature.

Nor had United received an approach for Kevin Wright despite reports suggesting the left-back was in the sights of a Norwegian club.

Curle has put his current squad on alert by spelling out his determination to add new signings this month.

The manager wants promotion-chasing United to get back to winning ways quickly after back-to-back defeats to Grimsby and Colchester.

He admitted his summer recruitment policy, which saw the budget committed on a smaller number of quality additions rather than extra numbers - always left him at risk of a difficult spell if injuries struck the squad.

With Danny Grainger and Mike Jones still sidelined, Curle said: "I'm always trying to bring quality into the football club and that won't change.

"We have already brought in and assembled what I think is a very good squad but with smaller numbers, [meaning] we will suffer if we have a shortfall of players because of illness and injury.

"The club are doing everything they can and I've got to do my bit for the club, which unfortunately means making sacrifices with some of the players I've got here."

League One outfit Bradford, meanwhile, are understood to be considering a move for former Blues loanee Alex Gilliead, who has recently returned to parent club Newcastle after a spell with Luton.

Carlisle tried to re-sign the winger before he opted to spend the first half of the campaign at Kenilworth Road.