Carlisle United boss: Fulham loanee can give us new dimenson

The Blues boss had long been keen to add extra speed to his strikeforce.

And he hopes Fulham loan man Ablade can help put League One opponents on the back foot.

“I think it’s the best trick you can have in football if you’ve got pace, because it’s unplayable at times,” manager Simpson said.

“Hopefully by having him in the group, and if he gets on, he will make teams back off a little bit and not give us space in behind.

“It’s been quite congested because we’ve been playing a lot in front of teams, so hopefully he’ll give us a little bit of a new dimension.”

United’s attack has lacked pace since the summer departure of Omari Patrick and the loss of last season’s loan man JK Gordon.

Ablade, a Finland Under-21 international, has been on United’s radar for some time, Simpson said.

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And the 21-year-old has already shown his enthusiasm for life at Brunton Park.

“He turned up with the biggest smile on his face ever,” said Simpson of Tuesday’s season-long loan arrival.

“He seems a real happy lad, really keen to be a success here. He just seems a decent lad.

“He’s a really exciting sort of player. He looks really powerful, he’s got old-fashioned footballer’s thighs and looks like he’s got that power about him.

“He’s got an enthusiasm – he wants to come in and do well.

“It’s going to be a challenge for him, it’s his first time living out of London since he’s been in the UK.

“But he’s come up here and he’s determined to show everybody what he can do.

“He’s got good technical ability, a decent goalscoring record, [although] not in first-team football – and what he has to do is make this step up now.

Simpson has been looking to replace the pace of Omari Patrick, who left the Blues this summer and joined Sutton United (Image: Ian Allington / MI News)

“As with all loans, it’s a bit of a gamble but it’s a gamble I’m really looking forward to seeing what he does.”

Ablade has been a regular scorer for Fulham’s Under-18s and Under-21s and his progress has been tracked for some time by the Cumbrians.

“We’ve seen him for quite a while. We didn’t enquire about him last season, but he’s a player we have been aware of,” “Simpson said.

“We made all the enquiries to different people to find out what he’s about, because we’ve all got different contacts, and we decided he’s the right one for us to come in and give us something different.

“We’ve got a mix of players at the moment, and it gives us options that he can play anywhere across that front line – as a striker, as a wide right, wide left, whatever. He gives us a good option.

“Since losing Omari in the summer, [after] he made the decision he wanted to leave, we’ve been lacking a little bit in that sheer pace.

“Hopefully Terry will show us what he’s all about.”

Ablade is the second loanee to head to Brunton Park from Fulham in the last year, with Sonny Hilton having spent the first half of last season with the Blues.

“I didn’t speak to Sonny [about Ablade] but I think Greg [Abbott, head of recruitment] might have done,” added Simpson.

“We know people at Fulham who are working in the first-team and in the academy, and we also know other people who’ve watched him down there, plus we’ve got our own scout in the south as well.

Ablade is the second loan player to join from Fulham in recent times, after Sonny Hilton spent the first half of last season with Carlisle (Image: Richard Parkes)

“We’ve looked into all different things. We do a lot of background checks on these players just to find out what sort of personality they are, how they’ll cope coming away from home.

“These are decisions we take with every player we bring into the club. None of them are guaranteed – we hope they’re going to come in and show us the ability they’ve got and what they’re capable of, and hopefully that will be the case with Tel.”

Simpson says he feels Ablade will be able to adapt to different attacking roles rather than being pigeon-holed to one specific position.

The young frontman had a loan spell with AFC Wimbledon in 2022 when he made two starts and ten sub appearances without scoring.

Simpson hopes the Ghana-born player can be one of those prospects from the Under-21 market that makes an effective step up to senior league football.

“There’s no way I can actually predict that he’s going to. That said, there’s no way I can say any senior permanent signings are going to do it for us,” added United’s manager.

“Every signing you make, be it permanent or a loan, there’s a risk to it. We can only go off what we’ve seen and heard, and that gives us enough confidence to want to go and do it.

“If people knew how many enquiries we make about players…we’re talking hundreds of enquiries. There’s a lot of them where we go, ‘You know what, that’s probably too much of a gamble and we’re not going to do it’.

“But this one we feel it’s the right sort of risk to take, the same with Luke Plange – I think Luke will really come good.

“The last couple of games when he’s come on as a sub, he’s shown a real desire to want to do well, and hopefully with Terry coming in he’ll have that same desire and show what he’s all about.”