Carlisle United boss with latest on January recruitment

The Blues boss expects to strike early in the transfer window as United aim to turn their League One season around.

Carlisle are, the manager said, “in a good position” to do so because of the increased budget provided by the club’s new owners, the Piatak family.

While some signings are hoped to be in place in the earliest days of the window, Simpson stressed that lots of work on several fronts is also taking place.

“We are in a good position, because the finances have dictated that we are in a good position,” said Simpson.

“The league table doesn’t put us in a good position, being totally honest.

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“We have got lots of things that we’re discussing, lots of ideas of how we want to try and improve the squad, and we’re going to keep doing it.

“There’s nothing guaranteed until the deals are signed and the players are in the building working with us.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get players in that we think can help us.

“We also have to keep working with the players we’ve got here, and hope they step up a level and start producing the performances that get results.”

Simpson this week said he is hopeful of some news "in the next few days" about a possible arrival, having previously suggested that one prospective deal is all but done, with the United boss wanting more than one new face available at the soonest possible stage in January, which would be for the trip to Exeter City on January 6.

Before then, Carlisle have five league games and the need to stay in touch in the survival battle is paramount.

United begin that run with the home clash against Northampton Town on Saturday.

“It’s not something that’s going to change overnight tonight, it’s going to be a bit of a slow-burner and we’re going to have to be patient,” added Simpson on the recruitment drive.

“But I can assure everybody we’re doing everything we can to try and improve the group that we’ve got at the moment.”

Simpson conceded that January shopping had its challenges but United are trying to broaden their reach in a bid to attract the right players.

“It’s not an easy window, that’s for sure, but I’ve got to tell you the truth – I didn’t find the summer an easy window either,” he said.

United are hoping to bring in another analyst to support the work of Jacob Blain (Image: Richard Parkes)

“It’s a bit better for me in that Greg Abbott [head of recruitment] does a lot of the spadework – he’s the one who’s making the phonecalls to find out the availability, the costings, he’s speaking to the agents…once we collate the lists I then get involved and say, ‘Yes I like him, no I don’t like him…’ and get a bit more information on that.

“We’ve got Jacob Blain who’s trying to balance doing the first-team analysis stuff and also getting the recruitment analysis information.

“That’s why we’re trying to employ a new first team analyst so we’ve got a bigger group of staff to do that.

“Analysis has become a huge part of the game now, you can get so much information from statistical sites like StatsBomb, and we’re trying to use every tool we possibly can to try and improve the football club.”