Lee Clark has insisted there is nothing "sinister" behind his recent appearances in the directors' box at Carlisle United - and denied positioning himself for a potential future vacancy at the club.

The former Huddersfield, Birmingham and Bury manager has been sat close to Blues' directors at their last two home games, sparking speculation among supporters at a time when Keith Curle's long-term future remains unclear.

The 45-year-old, though, said he has simply been "keeping abreast" of as much football as he can while he awaits his next opportunity, and has been a regular visitor to Brunton Park over the years.

As 61 per cent of people who responded to our online poll said they want Curle to remain as United's manager, Clark added that he would not show "disrespect " to the current boss by discussing any possibility of replacing him if the club decide against offering the Bristolian a new contract.

Speaking to The Cumberland News , Clark said: "I know Keith very well, get on well with him, and I don't do my business like that. Carlisle have got a manager and there's still a big part of the season to go.

"There's nothing sinister in me being there at all. It's only 40-odd miles from where I live and, over the years, the club have always been good to me in terms of providing me with a ticket.

"It gives you an opportunity so that, when you do get back in, you've watched a lot of players at various different levels."

Asked if he would be interested in any potential future vacancy at Carlisle, Clark said: "I wouldn't show the disrespect to Keith by talking about it like that.

"I wouldn't like it to happen to me while I was a manager, and it should be an unwritten rule. I think it is with the majority of guys.

"You've got a manager there who has turned things around since he's been into the club.

"If Carlisle could get a few more wins on the bounce it gives them the chance to threaten those play-off places. This is the time to make that run late, so you've got that momentum, which is better than clinging on all season and scraping in.

"I think the fans should want me to come back - they've taken seven points from the three games I've been to,m against Crewe, Colchester and Chesterfield. I could be a lucky omen."

Clark, sacked by Bury in October, explained that he has a good relationship with United's directors and also has a family connection with the Blues.

He said: "I've got an affinity which goes a long way back to the 1980s, when I was a young boy and used to go and watch my brother-in-law, Paul Baker, play there.

"I used to stand around in the corridors at Brunton Park, kicking the ball around - I was only seven or eight years of age then. Bob Stokoe and Pop Robson, who I later worked with at Sunderland, were there.

"It's a big club with untapped potential. It could be huge if you could get it going in the right way. In the 1980s they were competing high up in what's now League One and the Championship.

"I've also known them many years through coming up against them as a manager, and there are people there who I've worked with at previous clubs.

"In my time at Birmingham and Blackpool I showed a lot of interest in Brad Potts, Mark Gillespie and Kyle Dempsey and I know they've got a good reputation of producing some good young players.

"The opportunity last Saturday was either go to the Carlisle game against Chesterfield, or across to Hartlepool v Woking. Where I'm based, on the west side of Newcastle, it's quite an easy drive to get across to Brunton Park.

"It's just me watching football matches and that's it, basically. I love football and, although Carlisle isn't on my doorstep, it's one of the closer ones."

On the fact his appearance close to United's hierarchy had triggered speculation, Clark said: "Because of social media and the world we're living in now in football, nine-tenths of the stuff that gets reported is absolute garbage, when you cut deep into the reality of it.

"A lot of it is started by rumour and hearsay and it just escalates. But it's the world we're in and you've got to deal with it and crack on."

Clark, who worked under United chief executive Nigel Clibbens at Huddersfield, added that he is waiting for a new challenge. "I've turned down two terrific opportunities [recently] to work abroad, which is something I want to do, but those opportunities weren't at the right time, for personal reasons," he said.

"There have been bits of contact in the UK as well. It's a strange thing, when you've left school and every Saturday afternoon been involved in a football match one way or another, and then you're not for a while.

"The sensible thing is to get out there and watch some."