Paul Simpson says his summer recruitment still isn’t done at Carlisle United.

The Blues have bolstered their squad in recent days but the manager says he is still seeking competition in certain positions.

Simpson wants to bring in further competition on the left of his defence.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s trip to Colchester United, the Blues boss said: “The left sided one may be somebody who could tick both boxes as a left wing-back/left centre-back in a three.

“We’re going to keep looking.

READ MORE: Carlisle United bring in Derby County striker Jack Stretton on season-long loan

“It’s proving really difficult. My ideal scenario was to try and get somebody experienced in there but that hasn’t happened for one reason or another.

“We just keep working. If I can bring players in who I think are going to improve our group, I have to accept they might not be experienced, they might be a bit younger, I maybe have to accept I can’t bring them in on a permanent, it may have to be a loan.

“But I’ll keep working until I get what we believe is the right number and right mix of players, and we’ll keep working until the window closes.”

Simpson revealed yesterday that he had explored the possibility of a move for experienced Cumbrian defender Paul Huntington after his departure from Preston.

But United’s boss said he was informed at an early stage that such a move was never likely.

“There was stuff in it early on, over the summer, that came to nothing,” he said.

“I haven’t had any other conversations. I was told it wasn’t for him, so that’s it, we move on. As far as I’m aware the situation hasn’t changed.”

Simpson has bolstered his squad in recent days with Michael Kelly, Jayden Harris and Jack Stretton, adding to the players he had already recruited in the close season and pre-season.

“I think we needed those numbers,” he said. “We had 12 players out of contract, and most of them left. We had four loan signings too, so that’s a big chunk of players leaving.

“In the ideal scenario I didn’t want to lose as many. I made offers to Magnus Norman and Joe Riley, and I’m disappointed they chose to leave, but that’s football.

“I’m delighted with who I’ve brought in to replace them. Let’s see what happens. In my mind I’d still like to bring probably one more in, then that will give me some proper headaches in terms of selection, and that will mean a number will have to be left out of every matchday squad.

“If you want to have a decent first half of the season between now and January, we need a number of players because somewhere along the line we are going to pick up suspensions, niggly injuries, and I also don’t believe the same group of players can play all 46 league games and every cup game, so we’re going to need options to be able to freshen things up.”

Simpson has not ruled out more loan deals for some of Carlisle’s younger players.

But he said that will not come at the expense of his requirements on the training ground at Brunton Park.

“We’ve got Max Kilsby who’s gone to Annan, Sam Fishburn who’s gone to Blyth, and at the moment there’s nothing else imminent as far as I’m aware,” he said.

“It maybe sounds selfish but I need to keep the right sort of group together for training.

“I want it to be competitive, with the right players there.

“If an opportunity comes up for one of the young players to go out, we’ll look at it and it may open up the door for one of the scholars to come in and train with us.

“We want to do an XI v XI practice, I want it to be competitive and right, I want to make sure we have 20 outfield players available for our sessions.

“If that allows anybody else to go out we’ll look at it but there’s nothing there at the moment.”

Simpson added that he remains open-minded to a loan for young keeper Gabe Breeze now he has signed the more experienced Kelly as back-up to Tomas Holy.

He said: “He needs to get games, as part of his development. But it’s got to be right for us.

“I want to have three goalkeepers for our training, and also it may be an opportunity that sometimes it may be to involve Gabe in our first team squad as well.

“It’s up to the three of them to give competition in training to make sure the levels are right in training, and to compete with each other to be in the first team.

“If the right opportunity came up for him to go out and get some games I would certainly consider it. As I sit here now that opportunity hasn’t come up yet.”