Carlisle Utd director of football David Holdsworth - full transfer Q&A

What’s the situation with signings at the moment, given the anxiety many fans are feeling about the lack of numbers?

Afte the start of the summer, which was a very successful period in terms of the players Steven [Pressley, United's manager] wanted to keep and the players we brought in, Steven has adopted a policy where he wanted to get players on loan from various clubs, and that’s still where we are.

Steven has been very open about his policy and, as a club, all we have done is support Steven and his targets.

Our responsibility is to go in for these players, which we have done, and at the moment we are waiting on options from these various clubs in the Championship and Premier League. We have submitted loan approaches, and Steven knows we are waiting on return calls from those managers once they’ve done their business.

It’s frustrating for Steven, for myself and for supporters who are keen to see people coming through the door, but there are eight options we currently have and we’re hoping some of those solutions come through the door very quickly.

In the next 48 hours we hope to have secured one of those from a Premier League club.

I respect the supporters may have anxiety at the moment, but Steven’s not panicking. He has been straight with what he wanted and we’ve supported him on that.

Steven could have had - and has had the opportunities on - a number of players [over the summer] and it’s not that we’ve been turned down. It's that Steven has been absolutely transparent about the type of player he’s wanted.

We’ve worked throughout the summer on giving him many options, and I’ve spoken to many agents, but we have never got to the table to a point of Steven saying 'I would like him, him or him'.

It’s a case of Steven being selective. He’s being patient, which is his prerogative and responsibility as manager.

With the short time left before the start of the season, how tight are things going to be in terms of getting the necessary numbers in?

I’ve been dealing over the last two to three weeks with these potential solutions. I’m dealing with other clubs, a lot of them now are back from pre-season tours, some people are also back from holidays, and players will want to go out on loan.

All day Sunday I was on the phone speaking to various people and I'm hoping the tipping point will be this week in terms of our recruitment.

Steven is well aware - and it’s blatantly obvious - that we need strikers. On Saturday everybody could see it, and we’re hoping they will come through the door sooner rather than later.

Some supporters believe the club is missing out on players because of the contract lengths being offered and because of the budget. What is your response to that?

With loans, I don’t want us to go for short-term loans, and we haven’t. Every one that I’ve gone in for - and it’s been Steven’s player that he has identified - they have been for season-long loans.

We don’t want to get into a position we were last year – and financially we’re in a better place than last year. There are funds available and I’ve made them fully available for Steven to bring players in.

At the beginning of last season there were no funds available to do season-long loans. We had an expensive squad in terms of the income they were receiving, which is fine; they were given prior to me being here.

We had to change our thinking, we had to release a lot of players, there was an extremely expensive budget which had been made available to the prior management, who the club had supported, but the club couldn’t fund that any more.

We had to work very tightly with the board and our sponsors [Edinburgh Woollen Mill] who have funded this football club. We aren’t keen to be elaborate in terms of over-spending and wasting the club’s money and the funds made available to us. That’s the deeper issue here.

A lot of that has been cleared, and we have a far better structure. However, we have to demonstrate we can work within the funds available. Giving two and three-year contracts on an expensive budget [to players] who perhaps won’t be here in two or three years – which is a situation I'm hearing from a lot of other clubs, who are having to pay off players left, right and centre – we can’t adopt that, which is why we’re having to be extremely careful.

Steven’s aware of that responsibility, and with the players we have brought in so far this summer, we’ve worked hard to get them: we beat off a number of other parties, and not because it was a one-year contract. All those boys can extend their contracts to next season.

Where people are saying, ‘You’re not giving out two and three-year deals’, they’re right. This is the transparency we must demonstrate in that we can be careful and diligent in our recruitment, and we’re not about to waste a huge amount of money.

We have to demonstrate this with our sponsors, who will support this football club, have supported this football club and, without their backing, Carlisle United would be in a far worse position.

I work closely with them, I have to do my job and won’t be sorry for making sure this club is not in a financial deficit or a bad way. I will put everything I can into making sure we can work alongside our support and give our sponsors no risk.

But has this approach seen you hit brick walls with some players?

No. I know fans have talked about Jamie Devitt. When Jamie said he wanted to go elsewhere, that was extremely early. We offered Jamie to be the top-paid player at our football club. The agent turned around and said Jamie was moving on.

I don’t believe for one minute it was about the length of contract, because Jamie could have been here for two years and he knows that. Steven said he would have liked to build his team around Jamie, but he’s decided to move on and look for other targets.

Would I have brought Jamie back? I possibly would have done. But I’m not here to pick the team or choose players. I don’t get involved in that part. We do the recruitment, and there’s not been anybody we’ve really lost out on for that reason.

Jamie Devitt went to a League One club, and we wish him well. Nathan Thomas went to a League One club and we wish him well.

There’s not been anybody else we’ve gone for and missed out on because of the finance. Let’s extinguish that myth.

Why did the Tom White move fall through?

That deal was never going to happen for various reasons. I can’t elaborate on the details. It wasn’t a deal that was conducive to us.

Jerry Yates?

Jerry had an option to go where he wanted. He’d done a stint here, and he chose to go to Swindon. We made three offers for him, but whatever his decision was wasn’t based on finance, because we were well in there.

We offered over and above what we felt we could, given the opportunity. It was purely on his decision.

The manager has said he’s looking for six players – three frontmen, two midfielders, one defender. Are you satisfied those numbers will come in?

Every manager in the game has to be a good housekeeper – working with a club’s budget. If we had a bottomless pit, like some have, who put themselves at risk of going into financial difficulty, we probably still wouldn’t do it, because we want Carlisle to have a future.

We don’t want to put ourselves in a position to end up like a Stockport, a Chesterfield or a Torquay, or risk doing what Bury and Bolton have done, and find ourselves in financial difficulties.

The players Steven wants, we’re in for. We’ve made very good offers to their senior clubs and we just hope now we get the right answers.

When some supporters see a game like Saturday's, with a trialist defender used up front, they think it’s a bit of a shambles and ask how it’s come to this. Doesn't that underline how short the squad is and how urgent all this is?

I saw it myself [on Saturday], but I didn’t know the answer to it because I wasn’t in the changing room at half-time.

The boy [Kwame Thomas] who came in on trial – a decision Steven made –  was well short of fitness. The boy [Aaron Hayden] who then went up top – we know he had played there before, and in a number of positions…but I agree 100 per cent. We are short, it’s not rocket science.

Is enough money available to spend - including the Liam McCarron money?

Funds are available. If Steven wants to spend it today, he can.

I’ve enquired about two players this morning; we’re hoping one comes through the door in the next 48 hours, and the other one we’re waiting on a decision because he’s down south and Carlisle isn’t round the corner.

We’re in there. The boy’s being asked if he wants to come here. He’s from the south west and it might not come to us making a bid. But the enquiry’s there.

Where Steven puts those funds is down to himself. The players we’re in for, we’re in for financially, and that’s no problem.

At what point does this become a real worry, the closer you get to Crawley without those numbers you need?

I think that’s a conversation we’ll probably have on Friday, having seen how other clubs are now back and making decisions. We’ll know a little bit more by then.

I would love three strikers through the front door by Friday and we’ll be chasing those opportunities. In an ideal world for Steven and us we would like to have a few more bodies in this week. Definitely one, and we will chase other answers.

If the weekend passes and you’re still short, what will you do?

Then decisions will need to be made on whether we stick with those targets – and bear in mind the Premier League starts a week later – or move on.

I would be very disappointed to go into the start of the season [short], given the options we’ve had and the solutions we could have had, and I’m sure Steven would be. But it’s not somewhere we want to be.

So the next few days are huge in this regard?

Pivotal

What is the latest on Hallam Hope's future at the club?

Let me reassure supporters. I could have sold Hallam Hope, and we didn’t. I wanted to keep Hallam Hope. The club that likes Hallam most is us - that’s a fact.

Did we want to lose him? No. Did he want to play at a higher level? Of course he does. He wouldn’t be a footballer if he didn’t want that. But we’ve shown our strength – we didn’t need to sell him.

The other clubs’ ambition didn’t match ours in terms of where we see Hallam. He has one year left on his contract and is on a very good contract. We’ve shown our teeth and strength in not selling him for an amount of money that, in years gone by, would have been seen as cheap and not getting anything back.

Unless it’s a ridiculous offer now, there’s no way in a million years Hallam Hope will be allowed to leave.

I like Hallam, and I’m sure supporters do – and the days of Carlisle giving away players has gone.

Are you satisfied Hallam is settled here, in light of this news?

That’s down to Steven to man-manage. I’ve had numerous conversations with Hallam, and I’ve told him I don’t want him to go.

The clubs who wanted him haven’t backed what they said. The club that wanted him most was Carlisle United.