Chief executive Nigel Clibbens says he is doing the best job he can despite some fans questioning his value to Carlisle United.

The director was the target of a banner displayed in the away end at the Blues’ recent victory at Morecambe.

The banner referenced an unfortunate tweet recently made by Clibbens alongside his Twitter handle @nclibbens.

Another hashtag underneath asked: #whatarewepayingyoufor?

Asked for his response to those who were doubting his worth, Clibbens said: “I go on doing my job to the best of my ability.

“Owners don’t like spending money on anything other than football. If there was any scope to think that, whether on me or CEOs at any other club, they didn’t need to, they would.

“The fact of the matter is the tasks I have to do, and the responsibilities I have to carry, someone has to take them.”

Clibbens also insisted his responsibilities were “completely different” to those taken by director of football David Holdsworth. That followed questions from some supporters on why the Blues employed two such figureheads.

Clibbens said: “Another thing fans have talked about in the past is with David coming in, has that meant a load of my responsibilities have disappeared?

“It’s completely different.

“The arrangements we had in the past before David joined was that the football club was very much run almost as a silo – the management team reported basically to the owners.

“We didn’t think that worked, it put us in a risky position and made us more vulnerable in situations like this [manager John Sheridan’s resignation and the search for a successor].

“Therefore we changed it around to try and move some of the responsibilities of the manager into David – giving David more scope to then influence and input to the board.

“The structure hasn’t really affected me, it’s more affected the manager. That comes down to the nitty-gritty of what happens on a day-to-day basis.

“This is why the changes we’ve made help us today. In the past, you’ve been sat here interviewing me asking me, 'what are we doing about players?' The response would then be – and we’ve had it – ‘what does he know about players?’

“David can talk with a much more expert and informed view about players. It addresses that issue.”

Clibbens also explained the range of roles he says he carries out at Brunton Park.

“My role here is to manage the day-to-day operations of the football club. I’ve got to implement the plans the owners put in place.

“That then takes you down to the nitty-gritty of what I do every day – a whole host of tasks.

“It can be specific things where I have responsibility for dealing with certain departments like the media, the operations department, putting games on, and so on, and then into specific projects and issues like dealing with managers and recruitment.

“It covers a whole host of things…a lot of things not many people would see, like health and safety, safeguarding, these kind of things behind the scenes.

“It’s the same at all clubs. You can find everybody that has a chief executive and I can tell you most owners – if they could avoid having to pay a CEO and spend money on a player, they would all do it.

“The fact they haven’t shows is might not be the most exciting job, but it needs to be done by somebody.”

CUOSC’s United holdings board representative Billy Atkinson also described Clibbens’ role as essential.

Atkinson said: “It’s a complicated business – there are so many rules, regulations, people outside organisations that butt into what you do as a football club.

“It’s not like running another business. It’s not just about football. If you let the rest of the business go by the wayside, we’ll fail miserably.

“What Nigel does is vital, just the same as what David does is vital.”