John Nixon has insisted “no news is good news” regarding the process of ownership succession and Edinburgh Woollen Mill’s involvement at Carlisle United.

The Blues co-owner and director said the club have been given no grounds to fear that EWM’s support of the club has been affected by Covid-19.

And while Nixon admits the process of Philip Day’s firm increasing their role at Brunton Park has been put on ice by the pandemic, he said they have not scaled back their interest and remain closely involved with United’s affairs.

Nixon told the News & Star: “They’ve never withdrawn any support or said to us, ‘Look, this is getting difficult’.

“They’re on full circulation and have asked for our cash flows just in the last week, of us saying ‘Let’s assume [no fans are] coming in until March’.

“So they’re right on the ball and that’s been put together now. They’re getting the worst-case scenario – they’ve asked for that.

“By implication that is indicating that [they are asking] ‘Let us know how bad it’s gonna be’.

“Once they’ve got that I think the conversations will take place. We’re doing that at present.”

Nixon suggested in February that the process of EWM taking “a chunk” of United was down to the EFL “mechanics” stage.

Things have not progressed beyond that point, despite Day attending a recent Blues game in the directors’ box.

Nixon said the impact of the coronavirus on Day’s principal businesses had inevitably been a higher priority.

He said: “The process of succession is still where it was. But it hasn’t gone back.

“All Covid has done is closed offices in Castle Street [EWM’s Carlisle HQ] – the documentation and whatever we were trying to do was all locked at that point in time.

“I would suggest they’ve got bigger issues to deal with than this. It’s just gone onto ice.

“But nobody’s said, ‘Let’s withdraw, or change it, or let’s have a rethink.’ We’re all in exactly the same position.

“It sounds a bit woolly but we’re in the no-news-is-good-news game here.”

United have borrowed £2.1m from EWM since 2017 through a “loan facility”.

Nixon referred to recent reports in The Sunday Times concerning the impact of Covid-19 on Edinburgh Woollen Mill’s key clientele of people over 60, and tourists.

The billionaire businessman recently appointed advisers to provide a valuation of the Peacocks clothing chain, which is part of Day’s EWM group, with a view to a potential sale.

Nixon said: “They must be really hurting. But they’re no different to a lot of businesses [involved with] a lot of other clubs. You’re looking at people and they don’t have the same money coming in. So the clubs are suffering.

“EWM have been good to us, they’ve invested money when we needed it three or four years ago and they’ve been there ever since. If anything was to change on that I’ve got an assurance and I fully trust them that we would get to hear of anything that might have an effect on us first so we can be prepared.

“It’s a difficult world in retail, but it’s a difficult world for a lot of people, especially owners in League One and Two.”

Nixon, meanwhile, said Carlisle were in a better position to cope with the Covid-19 crisis than some other clubs at their level because of the financial approach they have taken in recent times.

The Blues’ have cut their spending significantly whilst also receiving transfer windfalls from selling players such as Jarrad Branthwaite.

The director, who represents League Two clubs on the EFL board, said: “We can see that some clubs are closer to the edge than others. If you’d asked me this question about Carlisle three or four years ago we would have been near that edge, but because of how we’ve operated in the last 12-18 months and the money from Branthwaite and one or two others, we aren’t as close to the edge.

“Some clubs had a little bit of cash which they’ve spent, some clubs have said they’ll run out of money in February and others are very close to the edge already.

“Getting through is going to be difficult. I spent hours on the phone to one club working on getting them some cash.”

He added, though, that because of the Covid-19 outlook with fans prevented from attending games for months, United were “in the same position as any other League Two club – we need cash.

“We’re on the back of one of the best financial years we’ve had in the last eight or nine years," he added. "I haven’t seen the audited figures yet, but I think it’s going to be a reasonable year because of things that happened before Covid. Once in a while you get lucky.”

Nixon, meanwhile, said it was likely there were now clauses in players’ contracts at Brunton Park related to another potential coronavirus shutdown.

He said: “At the end of every footballer’s contract, all clubs were told in the summer months, you can put variations into the terms and conditions.

“You’ve got to stick to the standard contract, but you can put in terms and conditions that if you have to stop because of Covid, then your salary will go down by 50 per cent.

“There are things you can add on, and it’s been put to the PFA – they are aware of it and their legal people are.

“I’m pretty certain that some of ours have got terms and conditions in [like that]."