Carlisle United boss reveals how close Blues are to more signings

The Blues boss said there is a good chance of further additions before the weekend.

“If I was a betting man, I would probably put some money on us maybe having one or two more…” he said.

United have moved early in the January window with the signing of Altrincham right-back Senior on an 18-month deal.

They are now expected to strengthen other areas of their squad, with attack a priority.

“It’s nice to get the first one done early in the window. We’ve got a few others who are close but we won’t get too excited until they actually sign and are in the building,” Millen said.

“[Attack] is one of the positions we need to add to. I don’t know which, if any of them, will get done this week. I’m hoping we’re close to them but we need to add more goals and threat to the team.

“We said that from day one. Whether they get done this week or not, I’m hopeful, but we have to wait and see.”

Millen also spoke of his hopes that contract talks with keeper Mark Howard will come to fruition soon.

Mark Howard (photo: Barbara Abbott)

The experienced No1’s contract runs out on January 14 and United want to keep him.

Millen said: “There’s been more conversations behind the scenes.

“I’d like to say we’re closer. Mark knows I want him to stay, Mark’s told me he wants to stay, so if both parties are in the same direction then I’m hopeful we can get something done soon.”

Millen said United have faced frustration with some targets but said they have quickly turned their attentions to other potential signings.

“We’ve had a few who have fallen by the wayside but that happens,” he said. “That’s why you don’t only have one target, you need to have two or three so if one drops away you’re ready to go for the next one

“If you put all your eggs in one basket and it falls away, that’s when you can get frustrated. We’ve missed out on a few, but we’ve quickly moved on to our next one and that’s the process we’ve put in place. Hopefully we’ll see the rewards from that later in the week.”

United’s boss said some targets were currently out of reach because of the Covid-19 situation.

“What you’ve found is a lot of the top clubs are hoarding some of their players because they’re worried about the size of their squads,” he added.

“Some of the players we’ve spoken about, we’ve been told [we] might have to wait until the end of January which you don’t really want to do.

“If we can get a few more through the door this week we’ll have done really well. They were our targets and there won’t be many deals done this early I don’t think. If we can, it’s great; more games for them to be involved in.”