Paul Simpson says he declined to make any of his Carlisle United squad players available for a move before the National League’s transfer deadline.

The Blues boss wanted to keep all his high-flying League Two squad intact for the run-in.

While some of non-league’s top tier were active in the closing stages of their trading period, Simpson said there was never any chance of his players moving on before yesterday's cut-off.

Big-spending Wrexham raided Barrow for frontman Billy Waters, also persuading former Premier League goalkeeper Ben Foster to come out of retirement.

Nothing of that nature came to United’s door, Simpson confirmed.

“I had one text messages on Tuesday night from a National League manager asking if we had any forward players available, and I said no,” the Blues boss said.

“That’s the only enquiry we’ve had.

“Nobody’s leaving at this moment in time. We’ve got a group of players who’ve worked unbelievably hard to get into this position.

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“Nobody’s told me they want to leave because they’re frustrated, if they haven’t been playing.

“We’ll go to the end of the season with what we’ve got and hope this group can achieve something really special for the club and also something lovely to look at on their CV.”

Simpson, meanwhile, said United were continuing to plan squad-wise for next season.

United’s boss recently handed extended deals to Callum Guy and Jack Armer, with Paul Huntington having also triggered an extension.

On the possibility of more such deals, Simpson said: “There’s nothing going on at the moment as far as I’m aware – certainly not this week because of our focus on the [two] games.

“I’ve got a very good idea of what it will look like [next season] but it’s all dependent on so many different things,” he added in response to BBC Radio Cumbria at his latest press conference.

“What I do know is who’s under contract for next season, and also which players who are here now that we have an option on in the club’s favour so that if we want to keep them, we can.

“I’ve got it mapped out what it can look like. It may change, but you have to plan ahead.

“We were in a difficult position in the summer where there was nothing in place with any sort of planning.

“We’re looking ahead now, also at what’s in the academy, seeing what’s coming through and the sort of natural progression of players.

“We have got an idea of what it might look like over the next year.”