Nigel Clibbens says “the view hasn’t changed” at Carlisle United about advertising the club for sale – after revealing the club had received two takeover enquiries this year.

Clibbens says the approaches were “fishing expeditions” from parties who have not followed up their interest.

And the chief executive maintains United’s status is commonly known to any would-be owners without doing anything extra to highlight the club’s availability.

The Blues hierarchy have faced calls from some fans in recent times to more openly declare the club for sale.

Clibbens, though, said the fact this has not been done has not deterred certain people from expressing interest.

He said: “Periodically we get phonecalls from people who are potentially interested, mostly brokers who say, ‘I represent someone who might be interested in the club, we’ve seen that there’s an opportunity at Carlisle United’, and they come and talk to us.

“We give them the rudimentary information, get them up to speed on the issues the club has, and then we leave it with them.

“In all the cases that we’ve had – I think we’ve had two in this calendar year – nothing’s come of them. But I haven’t seen them go to other clubs either.

“I would say they were more fishing expeditions, sounding out. You have to be cautious about the information you give, but also give enough info for people to work with.

“There are always people wanting to get into the game for whatever reason, but [these two situations] are not live in any shape of form.

“They’ve come in, we’ve talked to them, they’ve appeared interested but then nothing’s come of it.”

United, at the end of their last accounting period, were £1.3m in debt to Edinburgh Woollen Mill, with debts also to chairman Andrew Jenkins.

The club’s supporters’ trust CUOSC this week referred to United’s current, tightened spending approach, in tandem with EWM, as the introduction of financial “sobriety” at Brunton Park. The club hierarchy have said this is designed to make the club more self-sufficient and hence more attractive to the right kind of potential owners.

United’s top brass have in the past been reluctant to openly advertise the club for sale, claiming its status is well known without the need to do this.

Asked if this approach remained, Clibbens said: “The view hasn’t changed. The club’s there for anybody to take who wants to come and take it, as it has been for many years.

“That’s reported in the papers, it’s there, and we do get people making enquiries.

“My experience certainly in League Two – and it’s a bit better in League One but not much improved – is it’s very rare you get new people coming in saying ‘I want to take this club because I think it’s a great club and I want to take it forward, and I’ve got great ideas and some money’.

“They’re very much, ‘Oh, it’s an opportunity, there’s a big problem here, serious insolvency or viability issues – this could be one to take and see if I can get something out of it’.

“Those kind of situations, as we’ve seen, can often not solve the problem.”