A quick appointment would be in everyone’s interests. The precise words of Carlisle United’s supporters’ trust, and a view that will, no doubt, appeal to many.

Don’t hang around. Get someone in who can sort all this out. No time to lose, etc.

It is a line also commonly heard from caretaker managers. The last time the Blues were in this position, after John Sheridan’s departure, Tommy Wright made his views perfectly clear.

“I have said, look, make a decision one way or another,” he said in January. “It can’t go on and on. The longer it does, you’re in a grey area and the players don’t know really who’s in charge.”

Carlisle acted in accordance with Wright’s wishes, and by the time the next game came around they had made their decision. Steven Pressley was appointed and we now know how well that worked out.

It makes you wonder: maybe, at certain times, the case for haste is less strong. Maybe the quick call isn’t always the right way.

It is not as if Wright and Paul Murray had served a long interim. That interview was given after their second game in temporary charge, a 3-0 defeat at Northampton, which followed a 3-2 win over Mansfield.

Pressley was then parachuted into circumstances which proved challenging. United’s key loan players had either left or were on the brink of departure.

Joe Royle once said recruitment was the most important part of management, and in that situation it was perhaps less the identity of the bloke in the dugout that mattered than keeping hold of some good players.

Without the latter, the former will always be up against it. Carlisle did not profit from their quick appointment in Pressley, given they fell from a handy position to mid-table by May.

This is not necessarily to make the case for Gavin Skelton. That he must do himself. The assistant manager is in charge at Port Vale today and only by performing significant work should he be a contender.

Bad performances and results in the short-term will underline the need for something and someone new. But if Skelton makes a reasonable fist of it?

One wonders if the club should be inclined to leave it open for longer than usual, and see if a little uncertainty, or tension, turned out to be such a bad thing.

Wright, in January, was speaking at a time United were, in terms of the league table, strong. This time they are not and even phrases like “the players don’t know really who’s in charge” can be scanned differently.

Since the summer, this squad has known precisely who has been in charge. They have known who signed (most of) them, who praised and defended them in the media, who rated them for the long run and who sometimes selected them in spite of results and supporter opinion. Much good it did United.

Pressley, for his flaws, must have been a comforting presence to some. A harsher or plainer-speaking manager would have exposed or unsettled one or two by now.

That kindly figure is now gone, and players may not know quite so confidently where they stand. Good, the temptation is to say, considering efforts beneath that protection have led Carlisle to 19th in the fourth division.

So why not, provided circumstances are reasonable enough, see how this group responds to a touch of the unknown?

Why not assess who stands and who shrivels? Why not see whose character can make the most of it? It just might make the process of building a little easier for the person who eventually gets his name above the door.

As for caretakers, they often want a speedy conclusion but, again, is this always the right way?

Graham Kavanagh was keen on matters being brought to a head when he stepped into Greg Abbott’s shoes. The hierarchy were sold on his claims after two wins and he was crowned upon a third.

Would he have turned and fled Brunton Park had directors asked him to mind the shop for a while longer, so that a wider view could be taken?

Hardly. It was a rare audition, and stepping away from a challenge was not in Kavanagh’s nature. In the event his good short-term work unravelled into something much worse, and United, it later had to be said, also went in too early with a two-year deal.

Similarly, would Skelton walk now if told the Blues wanted to give it time? It would seem unlikely, given his own character, his long-held attachment to Carlisle, his pride at getting the assistant manager gig in the first place and, you can be sure, his eagerness to give this opportunity, whatever it looks like, his very best shot.

Other, outside candidates most passionately committed to the possibility of managing the Blues would surely be willing to wait. Only if United had precisely pinpointed a person at another club would there be little purpose in holding off.

If it is to be a process, rather than a fait accompli, then it ought to be a matter of considered judgment, rather than the speed CUOSC identified as a priority.

After all, Carlisle’s most successful manager of the past 20 years was appointed after more than a month of caretaker life. They had the measure of Paul Simpson by then, and look how that turned out.