'Lots going on' - Carlisle United chief on transfers

And Nigel Clibbens expects some of that work to come to fruition in due course.

The Blues have made one summer signing so far with the arrival of defender Aaron Hayden.

They are targeting a number of further recruits as manager Paul Simpson rebuilds the squad after relegation to League Two.

Clibbens stressed that things were busy behind the scenes as United look to bring further recruitment work to a head.

He told the News & Star today: “I couldn't say when the next one will be – I've said before that we've had plenty of instances where you think the next one's this afternoon and it doesn't quite happen and it gets delayed a bit.

Nigel Clibbens (Image: Richard Parkes)

“But there are lots of things going on here, lots of things. And I'd expect that some of them will start to come to fruition as we go.”

Simpson wants to strengthen in a number of positions and also have plenty of his recruitment done in time for the return for pre-season training on June 24.

Clibbens said there was no worrying about a lack of further signings at this point in the close-season.

“There are lots of inquiries being made, there are lots of players being spoken to and agents being spoken to and all that goes on until the point that you reach a deal,” he said.

“So I'm not particularly concerned about numbers of players that have been signed or anything like that. We need to get the right players.

“And we're now looking at players from a different group to what we did before. There's no doubt that the ownership change changes the sort of players that we can target. So again, that's all good news.”

United, thanks to the budget provided by the Piataks, are shopping in different circles than before, said Clibbens.

He said this did not offer any guarantees but that it certainly strengthened United’s hand.

“As you'd expect, there's a lot going on behind the scenes,” he added.

“We understand that the squad needs a rebuild, everybody understands that. It needs new people to bring new life, new energy to it.

Aaron Hayden is United's only summer signing so far (Image: PA)

“But we've also got a number of good players who we've acquired in the last window and in previous windows who've proved that they can be successful in this league [League Two].

“So we're on with trying to add to the squad to make it better. A lot of work has been going on towards the end of the season around identifying specific needs and specific profiles of players of the types that we think we need to be successful in this division and for the future.

“All that spade work has been done. There's been a lot of investment in IT in order to give us a better understanding of some of the data and that's featuring strongly in a way that it's never done before, which is a new development for us and another example of us catching up, probably, with many other clubs.

“At the same time, it's important that there's human judgement that goes on and expertise, and that we look at players and do all the due diligence on the potential targets. So all that's going on in the background.”

On the financial muscle available to Carlisle in the current market – owner Tom Piatak having said that United would have all the resources they need to build a squad to compete for promotion – the chief executive said: “If you've got more money to play with, then it opens more opportunities to players who consider coming to you, which is all good.

“But at the same time, if you want to try and do deals, all it means then is you're competing with people who are in a different pond.

“So it's not that you've gone to a group where you've got some more money, but nobody else has. It means you're just competing with a different group of teams.

“And in many ways, that can be a little difficult because, in actual fact, what you're doing is you're trying to challenge against some League One teams.

“So it poses a different challenge, but it's a nice problem to have.”

Clibbens confirmed that data was playing a more comprehensive role in United’s recruitment work. The club recently invested in the StatsBomb package to bolster their efforts in this department.

“All players are measured on the same sets of criteria. So a lot of work's being done on identifying types of players with the attributes that we feel we need,” said the director.

“So if you look at someone like Aaron Hayden, we've seen him play. So we've got the experience of seeing him in the building. We also know him from scouting and watching him.

“But then you've got the data as to what he actually does in games, the contributions, so we’re adding all the three elements together.

“And it helps you to benchmark players. I think the days have gone of just going to watch them. It's far more scientific and analytical about the processes that you go through.

“Part of it is to try and discover some hidden gems that might be under the radar because people don't quite see what they do – they might be performing really, really well relatively in a struggling team.

“So there's all these factors that come out.”