Carlisle United's Paul Simpson on Crawley Town's Kevin Betsy and League Two opening game

The Blues boss admitted Crawley Town’s new head coach was a one-time transfer target during his first spell at Brunton Park.

But Simmo revealed his hopes of luring the former winger to Cumbria were dashed.

“He’s a player I tried to sign,” Simpson said of tomorrow’s opposite number.

“I would have loved to have had Kev in my side. He was a great right winger, right wing-back. A really good footballer.

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“But no, we weren’t close. I was being optimistic in trying to get him up here.

“He’s a southern lad; I think the furthest he came north was Barnsley at one point.”

Betsy was part of the Wycombe Wanderers team that topped the League Two table in 2005/6 before Simpson’s Blues went past them to take the title.

And tomorrow's game is not the first opening day of a season when they have met - given Blues player-boss Simpson came up against Betsy in the first game of 2005/6, a 1-1 draw at Adams Park.

Kevin Betsy (photo: PA)

The United boss and tomorrow’s rival are also familiar from their respective times coaching in the England youth system with the Football Association.

“Kev took the Under-15s when I first joined the FA, and Dan Micchiche, his assistant, was head coach when I was assistant with the 16," Simpson said.

“They are two really good fellas. I’m look forward to catching up with them.”

Betsy was brought in by Crawley to replace John Yems, who left the club earlier this year amid a string of allegations about his conduct.

Yems has since been charged by the FA with multiple counts discriminatory behaviour towards his players and making offensive comments. The former boss, who has in the past denied the allegations, has until August 4 to respond to the charge.

Former Arsenal Under-23 coach Betsy, meanwhile, is at the Crawley helm as they enter a new era under cryptocurrency-group owners WAGMI United.

On his opposite number, Simpson added: “It’s a great first opportunity for Kev to get into a head coach or management job in League football.

“I’m sure he’s finding it a bigger challenge than it was working with the 16s and 17s in the FA and also Arsenal’s 23s.

“They both want to play a total football style. The challenge for them is to get their players understanding how they want to play, and hopefully we can catch them before they’ve got that full understanding.”

Crawley have signed players such as former Newport striker Dom Telford and Swindon captain Dion Conroy this summer.

Former Blues loan striker Ashley Nadesan also remains a key man. Crawley, on the eve of the new season, have allowed experienced goalkeeper Glenn Morris join Gillingham on loan, whilst bringing in Brighton midfielder Teddy Jenks on a season-long loan.

Paul Simpson (photo: Barbara Abbott)

“We’ve had them watched, three games [in pre-season] against QPR, Hearts and Aldershot,” said Simpson.

“They’ve got lots of players. He [Betsy] keeps changing his players around. There are some ridiculous squad numbers they keep throwing out there – there was a 98, a 70…I don’t know what trying to do, whether they’re trying to bamboozle us…

“They try and play football, they take risks, want to play out from the back. I think it will be a really good game of football.

“We’ve got to make sure we go and make the most of their building that they’re gonna be doing and hope we’re little bit ahead of them [as we’ve also had] 10.5 weeks at the end of last season to get our ideas across.

“The proof will be in the pudding on Saturday.”

Crawley are now backed by cryptocurrency investors, but Simpson admitted it wasn’t an area he was comfortable in commenting on.

Crawley are United's first opponents of the 2022/23 season (photo: PA)

He preferred to highlight the ways the United’s more traditional regime have been sprucing up Brunton Park this summer.

“I look at cryptocurrency and it scares the bloody life out of me,” Simpson said. “We’ve got enough issues without getting involved in cryptocurrency…

“I think the club [Carlisle] have had a right good go this summer to freshen it up. I don’t know whether they’ve called on favours or had to shell out money, but they’ve had a right good go.

“I’ve just walked round the pitch, and the playing surface is magnificent.

“There are the changing rooms, bits and pieces we’ve had decorators in for, I’ve just had two guys in the office putting new whiteboards in...

“They are trying to make this a nice environment for supporters to come to. I know that with all of the lounges on the far side, they’ve had a right go at tidying those up.

“I’m really looking forward to it. I think there’s a real buzz going around the city at the moment.

“Everybody I speak to seems to be in a really positive frame of mind about the club.

“We have to put on performances and win games to keep that positivity, and hope they all want to come back to a spruced-up Brunton Park.”