Carlisle Utd pledge to reinvest Liam McCarron fee in squad after Leeds sign teenager

The 18-year-old’s move to Elland Road was completed today, followed by a promise from the Blues that money would be spent on the squad.

The fee for McCarron was officially undisclosed with Carlisle saying that, under the terms of the agreement with the Elland Road club, they could not comment further when asked by the News & Star.

Sources have suggested the deal is worth in the region of £250,000-300,000, though it is unclear how much United will receive up front.

The Blues, though, stressed in a statement yesterday that they had secured an “excellent deal” and an “extremely healthy financial package” which also includes a sell-on and other clauses.

McCarron has signed a three-year contract after saying the chance to join Leeds was too good to turn down.

United allowed the youngster to speak to the Championship outfit after accepting a six-figure bid, having previously rejected offers for the Appleby-based player.

The Blues said Leeds had finally met their valuation of McCarron, while director of football David Holdsworth said the two clubs had nurtured a good relationship during talks which could benefit Carlisle in the form of loan players from Elland Road.

McCarron’s move, meanwhile, featured another individual with Blues connections, as it is understood the teenager’s agent is the former United captain and 1990s goalscoring favourite David Reeves, who is chief executive of the Revo Sports Management agency.

On the prospect of using the McCarron money, Holdsworth said: “The understanding...is that any fee received will be invested in the recruitment work we still have to do for this season.”

Carlisle said they were ready to hand McCarron an extended and improved deal but the 18-year-old had set his heart on joining the Elland Road outfit.

Leeds had been frontrunners all summer for the Appleby-based player, who broke into the Carlisle first-team last season at 17 and attracted interest from other Championship and Premier League sides including Derby, Sheffield United and Wolves.

Holdsworth said McCarron, his family and agent all indicated they wanted to pursue the move and it was then down to Carlisle to get the best deal they could for the club.

McCarron will begin life in Leeds' under-23 squad. The teenager said on United’s website that it had been a tough decision to leave.

“I’d like to thank the club for everything they’ve done for me, and it became an even harder decision to make when a new contract offer was mentioned,” he said.

“This opportunity has come up and I just feel it’s one I have to take."

On the background to the deal, in Carlisle's statement today, Holdsworth added: “This is one of those situations where a big club has identified the potential of one of our young players and has subsequently followed that up.

“There’s nothing much you can do when a club really does start to ramp up their intentions to actually sign the player, whatever age he is, other than let him know that he’s wanted by the club he’s already with and that you see him as part of the future here at Carlisle United.

“We did that to the point where, fairly early in this process, we offered a vastly improved new three-year deal with the option of a fourth year tagged on to keep Liam at Brunton Park.

“Speaking to the young man he made it clear that his intentions were to take up this opportunity and, at that point, negotiations continued between myself, the board and Leeds United to see if we could bring it to a conclusion.

“I have to say that I’ve built up a good working relationship with Leeds throughout this process and it could prove to be a good fit for us going forward should we want to consider any of their players for loan spells with us."

Leeds claimed to have "beaten off competition from a number of Premier League and Championship clubs" to land McCarron. 

United began their first full week of pre-season training today with 18 players on the training pitch at Brunton Park.

That number included four trialists.