Paul Simpson: How Carlisle United is changing under Piataks

While Carlisle United’s American owners are currently back in the States, that has not slowed the pace of change inside the club.

United’s manager says various areas of the building are being refurbished.

And the family are in regular contact with the staff on the ground via Zoom calls on those and a range of other matters...

Room refurbishments

“It’s chaos over on the far side,” said Simpson, referring to United’s Main Stand and the volume of work taking place.

“In terms of the lounges, they’re all being changed – there’ll be a different look to the boardroom, the players’ lounge, Foxy’s Restaurant…

“There’s going to be a whole change to the place in terms of the visible appearance of it.

“Everybody can see in the fan zone there’s canopies to keep them dry, there was the lorry with the big TV on [at the last home game] which I know everybody thought was great, portaloos behind the Warwick Road End…

The fan zone saw immediate changes under the Piataks and more areas inside Brunton Park are being transformed (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“I can assure you there are so many meetings going on with different people about tidying the whole football club up and bringing it a little bit more modern, just freshening it all up, because they [the Piataks] want it to be a better experience.”

United’s new owners said from the outset they wanted to spruce up areas of Brunton Park early in their tenure.

It is understood that among the symbolic changes planned will be a new carpet in Foxy’s to replace the current one which features the branding of Carlisle’s former financial backers Edinburgh Woollen Mill.

“There’s lots of visible things. There’s lots of conversations, Zoom meetings going on because they [the family] are over in the States, and they’ll continue,” added Simpson.”

Training facilities

United’s manager, meanwhile, said talks are continuing over the Piataks’ plan to build a new training ground for the club.

Initial discussions with Cumberland Council have recently been held, said Tom Piatak snr and chief executive Nigel Clibbens recently.

Simpson added: “There’s been a number of discussions with different parties about an area of land for training ground.

“There are some real positive things there that I’m hoping will continue to be positive and we might be in a position where we’ve got somewhere.”

The Piataks have also spoken about creating a shorter-term training area to help United.

Paul Simpson says talks are continuing over training facilities (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“We’ve looked at that. It’s a little bit difficult, to get a pitch that’s at the standard we need it to be,” said Simpson.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t think that’s going to happen for this season.

“We use Gretna when we can’t get out on the back pitch here, and we’re probably going to carry on doing that – maybe Penrith too, we’re going to look at that as well. But they’re artificial pitches.

“I think maybe if the new training facility is long-term, as in 18 months away, we’re probably going to need an extra pitch for next season to have another option.

“[Currently it] is difficult – as much as the groundstaff work extremely hard to keep it right, when you’re on one pitch the whole time you are restricted.

“Even [on Thursday], we had got me doing some work with midfielders and forwards at one end, Gav [Skelton, assistant manager] doing work at the other end, Jake [Simpson, head of performance] has got five players and he’s trying to find an area to do some work with them…it’s just impossible with just one pitch, you need a bit more area.

“People probably don’t really understand and think that’s just a pathetic whinge but that’s the reality of it – you need more than one pitch if you want to do some proper, structured work.”

New additions - and data tool

Simpson is also keen to enhance his backroom staff numbers with United keen to bring in another analyst. The manager said he would also eventually like to recruit a second first-team physiotherapist while longer-term there could be another coaching addition.

In terms of analysis and recruitment, United are also now benefiting from StatsBomb, the leading data tool used by many leading clubs, with the Piataks having invested in the package to help Simpson and his backroom team.

Simpson, head of recruitment Greg Abbott and their colleagues now have access to more data in their recruitment work (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“It’ll just be a new tool to add to our eyes,” said Simpson.

“Say, for example, we’re looking at a central midfield player and we can’t get that particular one, you can put the stats in and it will come up with a range of other ones who are the similar type.

“It just gives you another tool to be able to recruit and look.

“It doesn’t take mistakes away, there will still be things we get wrong, but it just gives you another arm to what you’re doing when you’re bringing players in. That’s what we’re hoping it will add.”