“I had a good talk with the manager, who made me aware of the vision of the club, and the vision the chairmen had for the club – and that really motivated me,” said Aaron Hayden, explaining why he had swapped Carlisle United’s back four for the Hollywood-sponsored project at Wrexham AFC.

Now, it’s easy to be cynical and decide that “vision” in these circumstances usually means vi£ion; a big picture made a damned sight more attractive by being accompanied by some big cash.

And yes – it’s unlikely Hayden has dropped a level simply for the life-affirming thrill of limbering up against Boreham Wood and Altrincham without it also being worth his while.

But that doesn’t make what he said completely bogus. A scheme like Wrexham’s, with their American actor owners and blueprint for returning to the Football League and then going further, can be appealing on more than one level.

It is allowed to float a player’s professional boat as well as reinforce his financial security. If something novel is indeed stirring at the Racecourse Ground, you can be sure that Hayden won’t be the last to be intrigued.

As for the club the defender has left, there is no fundamental shame in developing a player and selling him for good profit, even if it will always jar a little when it is to a division down. This is in fact what Carlisle simply have to do, wherever the well-heeled suitors happen to come from. As a character and pro, meanwhile, Hayden is what you hope all aspiring Blues players turn out to be: a motivated self-improver on the pitch, wholly committed to the community off it.

This he was in two good years. The best of luck to him. Yet there are still other things to think about here, which Hayden’s choice of new employer has exposed. When he and others talk about the “vision” promoted by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny, fans of another community club – the one situated here in the Great Border City – can be forgiven for wishing they had a “vision” that was as clear.

News and Star: Ryan Reynolds, one of Wrexham's two new Hollywood star backers (photo: PA)Ryan Reynolds, one of Wrexham's two new Hollywood star backers (photo: PA)

Not the exact same one, sure. Hardly one fuelled by Tinseltown wealth and glamour. But one where ambition came with bright, bold and above all clearly-guided and expressed thoughts and actions all the same?

That, as we know, will require change at ownership level, and we are still not there yet at Carlisle given the much referred-to but persistently detail-light movement on “succession”, which supporters’ trust CUOSC say may finally be resolved in “discussions” said to be taking place over the next few weeks.

Everyone continues to live in hope, when it comes to the Edinburgh Woollen Mill/Purepay scenario or any less-mentioned alternatives. Until clarity comes, there are certainly few grounds for any of us to sneer at the new funhouse at Wrexham given that their new owners have, so far, met more obvious demands for transparency.

It certainly seems at odds with Carlisle’s proud commitment to “fan engagement” that, before the Covid pandemic stalled things, press releases had been drafted on a succession agreement which had not (and still has not) been put in any meaningful way to supporters, other than to CUOSC representatives.

Carlisle are not fan-owned like Wrexham were, and it is true that United trust reps have the freedom to act for their membership without tabling all big decisions to them, but it was still interesting to study the contrast when Spencer Harris, a director of the Wrexham Supporters Trust, explained in an interview earlier this year with Irish station Off The Ball how Reynolds and McElhenny, after an initial period under non-disclosure agreement, then very much did disclose – sharing their plans with supporters, submitting their intentions to scrutiny, and undergoing a full democratic process before they were allowed in.

“They’ve really put themselves out there in this acquisition,” Harris said. “Because we are community-owned, it’s not something that’s been able to be done for them behind closed doors.”

It is, frankly, a matter for curiosity any time this openness is not present in the advanced stages, whatever the share structure - and who honestly could blame Carlisle fans if the lack of disclosure in what’s been going on at Brunton Park makes them in some way nonplussed? Not all suitors are the same, sure, and it is true that credible deals rarely need cheap publicity from the beginning, but that is not the same as the humble wish that, at some later point, plans and intentions for the very future of Carlisle United could be shared with everyone with an emotional stake in the Blues.

Nobody can deny the consistency of EWM’s financial support since 2017 (a time the Blues really needed it) while United’s immediate vision, under their guidance, has been to get their outgoings back on the level.

This has been a responsible path. Yet it still has the Cumbrians in seven-figure debt to a firm (or firms) that does not seek any dialogue with fans and which retains a part in a process whose eventual conclusion will unavoidably leave questions at the door.

Why it has to be so – and why the EFL’s process of examining would-be owners has also proved to be the hold-up sources say it has – also demands clarity. Until it comes, United risk continuing to be a club in a sort of concealed limbo, a waiting room where the truly ambitious figure out who else’s vision they fancy trying.