No takeover, no new regime, should be deemed a success before its time. The outcome of the Piataks taking control of Carlisle United won’t be known for a long time – years, really.
We can, though, still take an early taste of things, and look for areas where the Blues might well be different; better, ideally.
Of the six members of the new controlling family, four are young. Each is now a director of the club.
“The four younger adults are fully aware that we are young to be in this position,” said one of the quartet, Jenna Piatak.
“But we see it as an asset to bring a different perspective in the boardroom, at the directors’ table. Just kind of a fresh new perspective.”
Again – actions are where it’ll be judged. But the words ‘Amen to that’ were still bursting to get out when Jenna said those things.
United has not, for most (all?) of its history, been a club run on youthful lines. Certainly, this is the first time so many people of the young Piataks’ age will have had such significant input.
It’s also definitively the first time that three women will have held such boardroom seniority at the same time (Alice, Jenna's sister-in-law, and Patty, Jenna's mother).
Whilst this cannot come at the total expense of experience – the ingrained club and football knowledge United’s existing directors ought to supply – there is something highly appealing about this splash of youth, of ideas, of naivete perhaps at times, but also of energy, of seeing the world through different eyes.
A club that wishes to capture a young fanbase also needs people in power who can identify and connect with this. For the first time on a fundamental governing level, that might be the case at Brunton Park.
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