Keith Curle: "I know I've upset people in the building. And all I can do is apologise, because you're gonna get more of it"

'Sorry not sorry' would be a more accurate way of describing it. Curle is reflecting on nearly three seasons in charge of the Blues, and also on the reputation he has gained in various corners of Brunton Park and beyond.

Described by FourFourTwo magazine this week as a "ball-busting Bristolian", the suggestion is that Curle can be an unsettling presence if he feels there are areas of a club in need of improvement.

According to some, he has put more noses out of joint in the last three years than Gennady Golovkin.

It is an impression he does nothing to dispute. This is the context for his 'apology'. He says: "We're professional. We're a professional unit now. There have been lots of changes inside the football club.

"Let me tell you, I know that I've upset a lot of people inside the building. And all I can do is apologise, because you're gonna get more of it.

"That's what I'm about. If I see things that I can improve, I've got to say my piece. I've got to administer change.

"The pleasing thing is that the stakeholders are on board. They've realised we're a football club that's gaining respect by what we're doing on and off the pitch. We're moving in the right direction in both fields."

The season about to unfold will examine the latter belief closely. Curle led United on one of the more topsy-turvy journeys in their recent history in 2016/17 - a record-breaking start followed by a steep new-year slump.

After the play-offs, where Carlisle fought back valiantly against a superior Exeter side before losing in the final seconds, the debate on where the Blues can go next has rumbled. A tumbleweed close-season of news was not promising but since then the manager has added significant new faces to his squad.

The budget, though, has plainly been tight, despite Curle's call after the Exeter defeat for "more investment". That interview, coupled with a suggestion he could walk away if the club did not match his own "ambition", was both striking and controversial.

Curle has not carried out his threat but, asked about his remarks now, still positions himself as the person trying to make Carlisle think bigger.

"I've not changed that perspective," he says. "I know that I rattled a few cages there. Certain quarters have said I was disrespectful in the comments that I made. I've challenged that and said I'm not a disrespectful person."

Curle does not identify those "quarters", but adds: "It might have been, in their opinion, inappropriate [to say those things] at that time. But that is a point of opinion. I was very pointed in what I said. There was a meaning to it. I need to know where the club want to go.

"I've had a couple of meetings, and I'm still scheduled for more. I'm here because I do believe the football club want to be successful. Within that, we need to be competitive in this division financially, and also ability-wise."

A few days after that interview, United issued a statement asserting they wanted success but not through a "boom and bust" formula. It was possible to interpret that as an attempt to temper Curle's most expensive ideas. His wish for the security of an extended contract, meanwhile, appears little further on from "preliminary discussions" reported earlier in the summer by chief executive Nigel Clibbens.

How that situation plays out will expose any further tension between boss and board. At present, Curle is keener to present a united front - although, as ever, with a spotlight on how he believes things have progressed on his watch.

Asked if he believes he needs to "upset" fewer people now, he nods. "Definitely. It's not only me, now, that's chomping at the bit for change and improvement. People are buying into the fact there's an accountability in the organisation whereas, when I first came into the football club, I didn’t think it was there.

"It was a great place to work, don't get me wrong. A very friendly environment. Thursday nights over in the Beehive - fantastic. But people were more upset if people didn't turn up to have a social on a Thursday than the team getting beat on a Saturday.

"Now that's changed. If we get beat, there's a lot of people limping. We don't like it."

In terms of how 2017/18 is approached, many fans share a view that Carlisle have a strong-looking side on paper but lack numbers in reserve. This surely cost the Blues last season after that storming start.

"Barring injuries, suspensions, and having a release clause reached for our top scorer [Charlie Wyke], we were on course," Curle says. "Then we had to reshuffle and had four or five injuries…

"No matter what division or team, you take four or five starters out of any team and it's going to have an effect on your results. Look at Doncaster. Their last three or four games they lost two of their starters and I don’t think they won a game.

"Last season we also didn’t have the benefit of a cup run to generate finances. We've learned from all that. We're trying to be a little bit smarter in some things."

How does that, though, tally with Curle's insistence that he spends what cash he does have on "quality over quantity"? Is this not walking towards the same pitfalls as 2016/17?

"It's my decision of how I use the budget," he says. "When I walked into the football club there were 27-28 pros in the building. The club had just been relegated, were four points adrift off the back of that, and not looking up.

"I want to bring quality to the club. If that means I need to work with smaller numbers, so be it. Within that you have the emergence of the development squad players who, at times, might be able to get their chance."

United have indeed taken four teenagers on "development" contracts and it will be interesting to see how far they will get in Curle's first-team thinking. Carlisle have used proceeds from the controversial Checkatrade Trophy to pay for the four. The best-case scenario is that Cameron Salkeld, Jordan Holt, Jack Egan and Morgan Bacon rise to the challenge and bridge the gap from youth to seniors.

The alternative is they exist in a kind of no-man's-land between the two, without a regular reserve team or a wider development squad which the club, at present, plainly cannot afford. Loan experience (Curle has hinted at closer links with Carlisle City and Penrith) may offer a short-term solution.

It will be hard to avoid a certain precarious feeling throughout 2017/18 as a result of United's general squad size. Yet their manager still approaches it all with a familiar confidence. He believes his record - a path from 20th to 10th to sixth - vindicates what he has done so far and sets the stage for further change, accompanied by some often-repeated beliefs.

Back to attitude. "I can still remember a time when we played Dagenham & Redbridge away from home, they were bottom of the league, and we drew 0-0," Curle says.

"My dugout was nearer the changing room so I came in first, went into the toilet and I was able to listen to the players coming in. All I could hear was "unlucky" and it did my head in.

"No, it wasn't unlucky, it wasn't good enough. We need individually, collectively, to do better. You know that unlucky tag? That’s what got this club relegated and facing further relegation."

United will finish 2017/18 where they deserve to be, as ever, while Curle would prefer the city and club's motto to be embraced. "Get 'unlucky' out of it," he says. "How about 'Be just and fear not' instead?"