Assuming this survival job finally gets done – this is Carlisle United remember, so let’s not allow ourselves mad thoughts of a cruise to the line just yet – there will, at some stage, have to be a pause and a heavy note of gratitude towards Paul Simpson.
Fans have raised hundreds of pounds for a flag to this effect. At Bradford City’s Valley Parade on 2021/22's final day, the idea is to show United’s manager a large likeness of himself in the away end, by way of a thank-you.
Thank-you for saving us, Simmo. Thanks for the rescue act which has followed the glory you inspired a decade-and-a-half ago. Thanks for keeping the Blues from shrivelling into its worst position for generations. Thanks for averting a form of non-league oblivion.
Yes, that’s probably worth more than a firm handshake. However United do it, whether it’s this weekend or one of the following ones - whether it’s a confident stride to safety or a hobble through the last stages – it will be important to reflect on what he’s pulled off, considering where he started.
Yet when brows are mopped and deep breaths are taken, whether that happens at Walsall, Brunton Park or another ground, we should then move on to thanking Simmo for something else – something just as important, in its own way.
For talking. About one matter in particular.
United’s manager has always been a comfortable and earnest speaker in the media and now his comments about the high-up stuff at Brunton Park come pointedly.
They have been made without sparing the horses. They come with the gravitas both from Simpson's deep connections at Carlisle and from his standing and achievements in the game.
He is articulating what supporters know but which, from time to time, others have tended to fight against. That the present state of the Blues, let's be honest, is really not good enough.
That the Brunton Park club needs an “overhaul”, as he put it on Saturday.
That the discussions he’s so far had, pertaining to his own future, have not yet urged his writing hand to seize the pen.
Those may be awkward truths, with less than a month of the season to go.
But Carlisle are far better served by awkward truths than cosy lies, by hard realities than standard get-behind-the-club repetition.
Simpson’s short-term tenure has, in that respect, been a blessing. He does not come across as one of those manager types grateful just to be here, glad of any job.
From day one, in February, he made the point that it was his deep-rooted feeling for Carlisle that brought him back for this short-term mission, not necessarily the environment to which he’d be returning.
United, he said in that opening press conference, had at best stood still and at worst gone backwards since he’d left the first time, in 2006.
That in itself was a damning conclusion. Bracing comments those might have been to some in executive positions. Absolutely accurate and on-the-button they probably also were to everyone who’s been suffering an era of dissatisfaction at Brunton Park for too long now.
We can therefore be glad Simpson has taken the opportunity not to defend the status quo, but to speak with the freedom of a man who knows his own worth, here or elsewhere.
Who can, without fear of consequence, speak out for Carlisle United as the public would like to think of it: as a club that can and should be better.
The last era of Simmo established an opportunity for Championship football which Carlisle so nearly took. Then they gradually slid back down the hill. This current position is so far from that to be bitterly laughable.
That the Blues have come so close to non-league in 2021/22 ought to wound the pride of anyone who cares for the place. And that a man of Simpson’s stature has come in, sorted it out, taken a broader look and found that important aspects of what he saw were rather concerning, should be the only clarion call anyone needs.
Even if he feels his life is best served by taking his leave again in early May, it’s clear enough that even that decision would be motivated by a dislike of Carlisle United being below, in many ways, where it ought to be.
That particular scenario would set the Blues back once more. In itself it would highlight the underlying weakness and the serious need for change.
The hard reality is that, until things get better, Simpson should be at liberty to say these things as often as he likes. There ought to be no limit on airing the truth.
One only hopes, United having the absolute best spokesman they could wish for, that enough of the right people are listening closely to the message.
READ MORE: Grab chance to seal survival, Paul Simpson urges Carlisle United ahead of Easter weekend
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