Carlisle United's Mike Williamson on coaches, sporting director & more

Williamson has been joined by coaches Ian Watson, Chris Bell and Carl Magnay, who have all made the move with the head coach from MK Dons.

The new Blues boss, whose first game in charge comes at Swindon Town tomorrow, said the trio are hugely important parts of his team.

Asked about their particular traits, Williamson said: “They have all got big hearts for a start.

“The players have met them and they will feel it, because they're good people and generally in football, in sport, in business, you can meet people that are very good at their job, but when you meet someone that really cares [that’s something else] and I think that's what the owner [Tom Piatak] really embodied when I spoke to him too.

“I think that's important that, when we lose or the players get injured, they [the coaches] hurt, because they're so connected to those lads and they generally want the best.

• LISTEN: Our full in-depth interview with new Blues head coach Mike Williamson

“That started at Gateshead. You can measure success in many different metrics, but there's numerous players [from that time] now that are playing in the Championship and playing in the Football League, and they still keep in contact with us and take real pride and when they were with us.

“There were some who were struggling, and there's been a couple that contemplated giving up football and they've been beaten up by the game. Then when you work with them and you see the things starting to drop and their confidence starting to grow, their life's been transformed because they're playing at a higher level.

“You take so much pride in that and I think all three of the coaches really take pride in wanting to develop the human and the player as well.

“Mags is very good. He's very full-on. He drives things. He demands high standards. He's going to be very detailed in our possession and making sure that our distances are right and our structure is right and our press is right.

Carl Magnay is part of Williamson's coaching team at Carlisle (Image: Anna Gowthorpe)

“Ian is someone who's just obsessed with the football. It's his football. He hates not being on the ball, but he wants everything to be driven with an understanding and a reason.

“Chris is multifaceted. He oversees many things. He's like the glue that connects things. He's been a physio. He's got a psychology Masters degree. He's been on a coaching journey with us. He's been part of the S&C. He's got many strings to him, but ultimately we're all connected with a desire to improve and try and support the club and the players.”

Another element to Williamson’s time at United will be the involvement of a sporting director, United yet to appoint such a figure having recently been linked with MK Dons’ Liam Sweeting, who instead opted to remain at Stadium MK.

Williamson expects a collaborative approach on aspects like transfers when the new sporting director is eventually appointed, and believes a unity of purpose will be all-important.

Asked if he had been updated by the club hierarchy on the sporting director recruitment process, Williamson said: “They're working extremely hard on that and they have been from day one.

“I think it's important that they are ambitious, but it's the way they want to do things. It has to be right and it can't just be for the sake of ticking a box. They want to be really diligent in their processes.

• READ MORE: Williamson: 'All the pieces of the puzzle are here for success'

“We're speaking every day and they're working extremely hard to get the right person that can fit with the guys we've got in the club and the directors.”

Williamson’s immediate priority is to work with the players he has inherited from Paul Simpson’s tenure, although he said he will always be “proactive” in planning for transfer opportunities.

“Firstly, it's assessing what we've got because we've got some really, really good players,” he said. “It’s about making sure that we get the chemistry right to try and prepare them and be ready for Swindon.

“But secondly, we're always in the market and we're always proactive. I know the window's only open in certain periods but recruitment never ends. The lists are growing and changing and that will never stop.

Williamson spoke about his plans and principles at a press conference yesterday (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“So of course there's going to be activity and looking at free agents and looking at possibilities and, coming forward, January, because that's the nature of it. Nothing ever changes.

“But what I am really happy with and content with is the group of players that we've got here right now and the quality and the desire there is more than enough for me.”

Williamson, asked about what or who has shaped his own coaching philosophy, said: “There's been many, many factors in that, but you look at the top managers in the world and I love watching, I love learning, I love trying to dissect what really makes the best the best as players, as humans, as managers

“ And you can't get away from the passion of someone like Jürgen Klopp and then the Brighton model in terms of [Roberto] De Zerbi, how [they] come in and revolutionise the way people play, and you look at Pep [Guardiola], and it's incredible.

“It’s about being a student and wanting to learn, watching all the different facets of the tactical and technical side, but it never goes away from the best teams, and normally [it’s] the hardest working teams and the teams that don't get frustrated and the teams that will do the same habits when they're winning to when they're losing.

“So the fundamentals of the game never change, but yes – I've had some fantastic managers myself that I've played under and I've taken so many things, good and bad, and we've got some experienced boys here who will be doing the same.

“They will be taking notes at sessions and systems and certain elements of me as a coach and our style and our play and want to integrate into their own, but that's what human nature is and that's what I enjoy doing.”

• READ MORE: When Mike Williamson faced Carlisle United as a player

Williamson, having joined MK Dons from Gateshead last October, has amassed almost a full year of experience as an EFL manager – and a range of experiences, including a rise from 16th to the play-offs last season, heavy defeat in those play-off semi-finals and a difficult start to the current campaign in terms of results.

Asked what he has learned from his time at MK, he said: “I've taken loads. So much. I loved my journey there. I've got nothing but respect and good feeling towards them and I'm sure they'll go on, and they're on a journey as well.

“For me I felt this project was right for me. Everything about it was right. But the things I've taken [from my time at MK Dons in League Two] is that it's relentless and, in this league, you never get an easy game and you never get any gimmies.

“But also this season, even when things haven't gone right, you still look at the metrics behind it and it tells its own story. So that's why we've got every confidence that A, we'll get it right here, and B, they're going to start winning games in terms of we weren't far away and we weren't getting that rub of the green.

“That's what we want to bring in here and that's why we've got every confidence because you look at the squad, and you look at the club, and you look at the supporters and it's all there for us.”