Paul Simpson has confirmed that popular coach Geoff Haugh is remaining as part of his Carlisle United backroom staff for next season.

The Blues manager, who brought Haugh back to the club soon after returning in February, says he is delighted the experienced figure is staying at Brunton Park.

Simpson described Haugh - who had been part of his backroom team during his first spell at the club - as a “positive” person and an important part of his coaching jigsaw.

“I’m really pleased because I want a good group of staff, simple as that,” Simpson said.

“I want good people who’ve got the club at heart and want to do things properly.

“Geoff will be coming in as a rehab assistant, to make sure we tick all those boxes and get things done properly.

“It’s another member of staff who I believe will help us maximise the player availability and do everything that will help us to take the team further forward than we were this season.”

Haugh’s agreement to stay follows Monday’s news that goalkeeping coach Paul Gerrard was staying at Brunton Park.

The United boss has also promoted academy strength and conditioning coach Jamie Roper to work with the first team in place of Greg Short.

And on Monday he also announced the return of former Blues manager Greg Abbott as head of recruitment.

Simpson said the backroom team are working hard on planning the sort of pre-season programme he feels will help the team improve next season.

“I’ve had a couple of hours, on Monday and Tuesday, looking at recruitment, setting that up with Greg,” Simpson said.

“I’ve also sat with Gav Skelton, Jamie Roper, Geoff and Ross [Goodwin], the physio, talking about how I want pre-season to be done.

“That’s the structure of it, the days we’re going to be in, fitting it all around games, explaining how I want it done in terms of the level of work they’ve got to do, the level of high intensity repeated sprints they’re going to have to do in the way I want to play.

“We need to put a plan in place that makes sure the players are at a good level of fitness to be able to do high-intensity runs, to be able to sprint harder than they did last season on a repeated basis.

“It’s not going to happen immediately but we need to be in a good place for the start of the season with a view that, my head always tells me, they need to be peaking for the last 10-15 games of the season – that’s when the main thing happens.”

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