Carlisle United chief executive's scathing analysis of 2021/22 season

Those are the conclusions laid bare by directors in their official verdict on a campaign when the Blues nearly lost their EFL status.

Chief executive Nigel Clibbens has published a number of scathing stats and conclusions about the period when they floundered under respective managers Chris Beech and Keith Millen.

A third manager in the season, Paul Simpson, duly saved the Blues in a remarkable turnaround.

But Clibbens’ analysis does not spare the preceding work from damning interpretation – while he also comments on a “high churn” of players under director of football David Holdsworth.

The comments come in a review of the 2021/22 season which accompanies United’s newly-published, audited accounts for that period.

READ MORE: Carlisle United's accounts show profit but debt cloud remains

Clibbens said Carlisle’s decline from the start of the campaign, which continued the poor form of the second half of the 2020/21 term under Beech, came despite a 20 per cent player budget increase.

“For nearly the equivalent of a full season, we accumulated points in line with relegation,” he said of the months leading to Beech’s sacking in October 2021.

He pointed out a number of worsening trends in United’s form, including “a dismal three points earned in the most recent eight games, with no wins and a paltry two goals” before Beech left.

“Since [Beech was] awarded a new and improved, extended contract in December 2020, we won just nine League Two games out of 41 played,” Clibbens added.

Millen’s appointment as his successor, Clibbens said, was accompanied by “further financial support” including four permanent and four loan signings in January.

But “this did not being the improvement required. As the transfer window closed, performances and results worsened alarmingly.”

Millen departed in February 2022 - along with director of football Holdsworth after three-and-a-half years.

Clibbens said the latter had been “a key part of our plan [since 2018] to make improvements and maximise the effectiveness of our football spending and improve on-the-pitch performance and success.”

But the Blues in February decided to revert to a more “traditional” approach of the manager (Simpson) having full control over footballing matters.

In Clibbens’ analysis of Holdsworth, the director said: “In his tenure he managed down our total football expenditure from £2.6m in 2017/18 to a decade low of £1.9m…before rising to £2.25m in 2021/22.

“We appointed four managers and signed 96 players (50 permanent and 26 loans, 20 academy) over eight transfer windows.

“Of these players, we received transfer income for only three who we had recruited (Hope, Hayden and Tanner) and just 12 permanent and seven academy remained on contract as we entered the 2022/23 season.

“The churn of players was very high. Three academy players who were already on the books in 2018 were also sold in this period (Branthwaite, McCarron and Galloway).”

Clibbens acknowledged the “remarkable” turnaround engineered by Simpson to save United’s League Two status.

But their overall statistics reflected just how poor the season was overall.

Their return of 39 league goals was a joint all-time record, while their tally of 19 at home was the second worst in League Two.

Carlisle’s struggle to pick up points after going behind in games was also highlighted by Clibbens.

“An inability to win points after conceding first was a failing all through Chris Beech’s tenure, where we won just one and drew seven out of 32 games after conceding first,” said the chief executive.

“This continued under Keith Millen where we then lost nine out of ten after conceding first.”

On recruitment, Clibbens said there was greater stability in the squad moving from the 2020/21 season into the summer of 2021, but then “we suffered an even higher player churn in the year as a result of addressing recruitment failures in the summer 2021 window, and manager changes mid-season.

“We had 33 (2020/21: 29) different contracted players during 2021/22, including seven loans supplemented by a further 7 academy players.

“Mid-season saw more emergency deals and only one [signed] in summer [Jordan Gibson] made impact.

“Overall, 19 new players came in. This level of player turnover is high risk and not tenable in the long term.”

Clibbens also criticised United’s recruitment of loan players under Beech and Millen.

“Only [Dynel] Simeu of the seven loan players in the season made a meaningful contribution,” he said.

“This poor use of the loan market was a drag on performance and ineffective use of the budget.”

United, too, did not make the most of their spending in terms of output on the pitch, according to Clibbens.

“We utilised just 53 per cent (2020-21 52 per cent) of our £1.4m spending on player costs in productive minutes on the pitch,” he said.

Clibbens, meanwhile, repeated his view that success is not simply linked to spending, adding that United’s spending remained in the “lower quartile” of their division.

“The final 2021/22 table showed success on the pitch is influenced only partly by the amount of spending on football activities, especially on player costs,” he said of League Two.

“Only four of the ten biggest spenders made the top seven in 2021/22. Two of the three automatically promoted teams were in the bottom half of spenders.

“Only seven of the top 12 spenders finished in the top half of the division.

“Once again, the final table shows it continues to be a damaging myth and smokescreen that ranking of spending on players is correlated with divisional ranking in League Two.

“High spending is not sufficient on its own to bring success. Effective use of resources is essential and overcomes higher spending clubs.”