Never forget how Paul Simpson reignited Carlisle United

And yes, let’s start with that before getting into the entirely serious business of what the Blues need to do next, how they must make this something we'll look back on as a difficult but necessary moment in a story of fresh progress.

Let’s begin, sincerely, with an appreciation of Simpson, of Simmo, who reignited something at Brunton Park in a quite spectacular way before this sad and, the longer it went on, painfully inevitable outcome.

It is the knowledge of and memory of what he did between February 2022 and May 2023 that shapes how many – most, surely – will be feeling at the news of his departure, even if they agree with it.

They know Carlisle would have been scavenging in the National League without him. They know United would not – don’t make us laugh – have had that day at Wembley under the previous set-up.

They know crowds would not have surged back, faith would not have reconnected, the sparkle would not have revisited Brunton Park to the extent that extremely wealthy new owners would very much want a part of the place.

Simpson reconnected Carlisle United with their fans in a superb way (Image: Ben Holmes)

Throughout, or certainly until the decline, Simpson back in the manager’s chair was the dream ticket, the warm feeling you rarely get when thinking of the man picking your club’s team. Even now it’s hard to imagine such a special link for a long time.

Tonight it’s back to the manager market, the search for the next Mr Right, wherever he may come from. No longer will it be a Carlisle man in the seat with Simpson’s history of United success, his record of revamping lost Blues causes, his grasp of the community of Carlisle and its supporters, his professional and measured persona and his handle on the quirks, drawbacks, hindrances and potential of this engrossing old club, where the phrase ‘Never A Dull Moment’ should really replace ‘Be Just And Fear Not’ as motto without delay.

Really, everything good about this modern, burgeoning United can be traced to Simpson. The rush of new, young fans. The Piataks and their drive for better facilities. The fact Carlisle can still get 8,000 in despite losing most weeks since last August.

The renewed pride many have in the club after the remote Edinburgh Woollen Mill years. The idea that something is closer to being unlocked and unleashed at Brunton Park than it’s ever been.

Often it’s easy to overstate a manager’s impact, but not here. As such, when Simpson feels able to walk back onto Carlisle’s pitch, whether soon or further in the future, he deserves to hear applause in his ears once again, not the jeers that sent him on his way after the Tranmere defeat.

In terms of achievement he is, all in all, in the front rank of United managers. Nobody tops Alan Ashman on that list but only Simpson can match the great 1960s and 1970s leader’s three promotions. His record has two relegations as well, but the first, at least, had the immense context of the disarray he inherited. Then, as more recently, he duly worked wonders to turn Carlisle around.

Carlisle were floundering when they turned to Simpson in February 2022, and he did inspired work to turn things around (Image: Carlisle United)

The second relegation, in 2023/24, mounted the stronger argument that his powers were waning. Simpson carried the respect of many even through a series of bereft performances but he needed the benefit of results to see off a reluctantly growing clamour.

They never came. If there was mitigation for some of United’s difficulties in League One, a record of 30 defeats from 46 and, in the end, a consistent inability to match up to the average or even lesser standard of the division was on Simpson as much as it was on the Blues’ low starting budget and associated recruitment difficulties.

And then to 2024/25. The idea United could nosedive so vertically and straight away put a promotion team back on the pitch in League Two was hopeful at best. The ambition is fair and true – why start a season with any other aim? – but Carlisle have carried the air of a losing team with them into this new season..

When that involves a number of new signings, including some recruited at dramatic expense by United’s standards, that will always bring judgement to the manager’s door. The Blues, other than a gritty win over Barrow, have not been good enough in this term’s early weeks. The boos that followed the Tranmere game were of a fanbase feeling their patience with the current set-up pretty much gone.

In the end there was a cruel poetry in Omari Patrick firing the bullets, given that no player did more to promote Simpson’s Midas effect when a Carlisle player in 2022. Patrick then gave the Simpson 2.0 era and all of us a perfectly spine-tingling moment when he scored at Wembley to revive a play-off final dream.

Omari Patrick, who provided one of the surging highlights of Simpson's reign, in the end scored the goals that put him out of a job (Image: Richard Parkes)

On August 31, 2024 a harsh spotlight was thrown back onto United by Patrick, given the Blues, for too long, have lacked pace, elusive penetration: the qualities the Tranmere winger, when he plays like he can, brings with him.

United, since recruiting in January against the tide of likely relegation, and also in a “step-change” summer, have added what seems, broadly, a group of better players. Yet performances have continued to lack the flair, control and invention that Brunton Park’s glorious pitch deserves.

Simpson maintained to the end that 3-5-2 and other system arguments were not at the nub of Carlisle’s struggles. Perhaps he is right, yet United’s inefficiency over the months has not reflected well on whatever schemes have been put in place.

Most sides in League One, it became evident, were talking a different language to the Blues in terms the refinement of their football. It felt like eyes were being jerked open more dramatically in this respect when Rochdale and Gateshead, of the National League, passed Carlisle off the park in the recent pre-season.

Then MK Dons, hitherto pointless, did the same in 2024/25’s third league game. Carlisle, faced with such opposition, looked sluggish of thought and heavy of deed, even if they could occasionally summon a win when things were on more physical, combative terms.

Simpson appeared to back the idea that League Two would still be of a nature where a side prepared to win the fight first could have its day. His best Carlisle team, that of 2005/06, certainly did that before the glitter of Bridges, Hawley and co could be sprinkled.

It was a route to memorable success and, a generation later, a new United team pushed its way to promotion: not in ugly fashion, by any means, but certainly with character to the fore rather than what you might term ultra-modern training ground football.

Again – no apologies should be made or entertained when a team puts unexpected success before us like Carlisle did in 2022/23. Simpson was responsible for that as much as he has to own this present failure. He was the man behind giving Owen Moxon his head, for example, as much as he oversaw the 2023/24 recruitment that didn’t, whatever the circumstances, measure up. He put United on a winning path that few expected, even if he couldn't bring the latest slide under control.

Simpson and United could not arrest their struggles in 2023/24 (Image: Richard Parkes)

Some will wonder about the culture that has led to the latter but a more straightforward view is that United need, broadly speaking, a more footballing ethic, someone who can get them playing the game in a more stylish way – a leaning that brings its own risks, don’t doubt that, but something that brings a more reliable enterprise to that collection of blue shirts, that gives the Piatak ambition a better reflection, but at the same time does not neglect the steel any fourth-tier side requires.

United cannot expect things suddenly to get easier from here. They are a couple more defeats from considering themselves relegation fighters for the duration rather than promotion hopefuls. Should three defeats from four become four from five, and five from six, that is a rut and no mistake. Owning the north will be replaced as owning anywhere above 23rd in the table as a sudden and urgent aim.

Big spending and superb new facilities do not give you an automatic barrier against failure. Acumen, though, does, and this question now drops firmly at the feet of the Piataks, who have transformed United in many excellent ways but about whom we know nothing in terms of their capacity for shrewd footballing decisions as yet.

Simpson was their man even if they didn’t hire him: someone who took the American family by the hand and led them through the landscape of what Carlisle were, are, and where they needed to go. Dispensing with him or accepting his departure - and it's understood it's more the former than the latter - will have been signed off, one imagines, with great regret.

If this was indeed a sacking some may depict it as super-wealthy and successful business people shedding their kindly clothes and being as ruthless as needs be. Those most critical of Simpson are by extension critical of the owners for not acting sooner, when most other managers would have long gone.

Yet the Piataks also bought into the notion, which many shared, that Simpson at Carlisle wasn’t any other manager. They placed great value in his standing and expected the large road-bumps to vanish in the rear-view eventually, and for Midas to return. It didn’t happen, and a particular decision, and surrounding decisions, must now be made with clear and intelligent judgement.

As for the man moving out, this news reminds us that many great things often end in failure – that's life, that's football – yet there are great and good grounds to say above all to Paul Simpson, now that he’s an ex-Carlisle United manager again, a strong and heartfelt thank-you.