When Carlisle United's Paul Simpson was 'brutal' with agent

Carlisle United’s head of recruitment Abbott says manager Simpson laid it firmly on the line with a player’s representative to get a deal over the line.

The Blues boss’s firm stance worked – and underlined Abbott’s respect for someone he described as “the easiest manager I’ve worked for”.

Abbott, who himself managed the Blues from 2008-13, said of Simpson: “There are times where he’s serious, times when he’s bit of fun, but you know where you are with him and he doesn’t hold back.

“In fact, when we were trying to sign a player in summer...I thought it was me who’d get angry with agents, but Simmo two-foot tackled an agent over the phone - and it was brutal.

“And it worked. We ended up signing the player. The [agent] came in, we were all friends and happy ever after, but I was like, ‘Oh my word, this guy [Simpson] has got a streak to him’.

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“He likes a bit of fun but he’s driven, wants the club to be successful and [for everyone to] work hard, but I think he wants us to enjoy the journey as well.

“For me honesty is the best policy – ‘let me do it my way’ is key, and that was probably another factor in me coming back here.”

Abbott was brought in during the summer to rebuild United’s recruitment set-up.

The 58-year-old went into further detail why he is delighted to be working in such a key role in Simpson’s backroom team.

“He just says get on with it,” said Abbott. “Doesn’t tell me what to do, doesn’t tell me when to come in. He actually didn’t want me to come in at all this week. I think he was sick of hearing my voice!

“He gives people the opportunity to do the job. He’s got a really good staff that want to do well for him, and he shows us a lot of respect.

“If you’ve got any issues he’ll listen, if you need a day off for any reason he’ll let me do that.

“He wants you to work hard and share the same ambition that I know he’s got. I can tell what he’s like in terms of how he wants to move this club forward and make it more successful.

Greg Abbott (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“All the aspects of the club, he wants to make better. He wants the right people in different positions. Hopefully I’m the right person in this position that can help him at the moment.”

Abbott has also described how he and colleagues at United set about the job of restoring a detailed scouting system to the Brunton Park club.

He says he has three scouts working for United and feeding information to him.

And Abbott works in tandem with analyst Jacob Blain to ensure Carlisle have a comprehensive database of potential targets.

“I got a lot of help on the administrative side and structural side in terms of setting up the Google Drive,” he said.

“Me and computers…I’m like one finger and one thumb. But Jacob was brilliant and set it all up.

“I put all the information to him and we set about putting in regular templates, so all the match reports and player reports go onto that Google Drive.

“You can see it as soon as it’s uploaded onto the computer – which I can actually do, which is a phenomenal achievement for my good self…

“The manager can see it and ring me about a player within 20 mins of me going to a game. Nigel [Clibbens] sees it in his CEO role, so he knows what sort of work is going on, where we’re going, why, what we’re watching and there’s the report.

“So we start getting a bit of a jigsaw together, information on all the players, and out of that we align it all and put it into positions, and present to the manager as and when he requires a player in that position.

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“We go through that pretty quickly, but lot of work and graft has gone into it.”

Abbott added that there is a balance in how United weigh up a player’s potential merits, between modern-day data analysis and more traditional scouting.

United's first-team analyst Jacob Blain (Image: Richard Parkes)

“Because Simmo said to do it my way, my way is to get character reference, live viewings, ability, technical, and then with Jacob, I say, ‘Balance it up now, give me some data or analysis to suggest why he [should or] shouldn’t be a target for us’.

“He’ll say, ‘Have you seen this Greg? This is alarming’ or ‘This is brilliant’.

“That supports the work we’re doing. Jacob’s first job is analysis to Paul with opposition, but he’s touching on my side to help me in an area I’m not fantastic with.

“We leave as many errors accounted for that might happen by looking for data alongside live viewings, scout reports and my opinion.”

Abbott said it had been an “easy decision” to return to Carlisle, and that it took him no more than “30 seconds” to accept Simpson’s invitation.

The move saw him back at the club where he had worked as assistant manager and manager for seven years.

“I’m enjoying myself. It’s been great,” he said.

“There’s a nice buzz about the place, and it’s important to keep that momentum.

“It was an easy walk-in to the ground back in May. There were a lot of faces I recognised, a lot still here from when I was here before.

“If I can play a small part in the background and can help people along the way, that’s what I’m here for. I’m loving every minute of it.”