Carlisle United Supporters' Trust column on recent criticism

I was angry on Saturday. The frustration at the last 18 months of on field performances is clearly boiling over.

Football is an emotional game, it’s one of a myriad of reasons why we love it so much, and why that day out at Wembley that seems so long ago, meant so much.

I could easily write this article about which player made which mistake or key points of the game. However that will already be covered extensively by others and probably won’t help anything.

Instead I thought I’d focus on the reaction, including my own. When things are going badly, often we look for a scapegoat. A single reason why things are not working. It’s human nature fuelled by TV and movies teaching us that there’s always a Machiavellian villain pulling the strings. And that if the hero removes them then suddenly everything is fine.

At the minute many have differing ideas on who this scapegoat should be. For some it’s the head coach and/or his predecessors, for some it’s one of or a few of the players, for some it’s the recruitment team, and for others it’s the owners including The Trust.

Real life is never that simple.

I’m writing this, having had a distracted first few days of my week off from work, where I’ve been reading and listening to a lot of the feedback from recent weeks. I’ve seen several criticisms and accusations aimed at the trust board from the local media, members and non-members.

Criticism increased after the 1-0 defeat to Cheltenham (Image: Ben Holmes)

Criticism is welcome. Feedback, good and bad, is vital to making improvements. It’s something that we as a board take on and we often disagree with each other on the best approach to things. However every decision is taken with the best interests of the club at heart.

So lets have look at some of the criticisms I’ve seen and hopefully address a few of them.

First up. We are a closed shop. An allegation aimed at this board many times in the past. However this is simply not the case. Nine of the ten board members have been newly elected in the last two years.

Prior to 2021 I personally did not know nine of the current board members in more than passing them in the crowd at Brunton Park over the years. We have recently confirmed our AGM where board positions will be up for election. We will also soon be inviting expressions of interest in our secretary role.

The board were democratically voted on by the members to represent them. We continually welcome new ideas and input from both members and non-members.

We as a board disagree from time to time on the best approach to each task or decisions made. But every decision made is done so with the intention of doing the best for our members.

Secondly, we don’t communicate. This is an area I have been vocal about in the past. Communication is key and I believe we have taken steps in the right direction. We have modernised the website, our emails, this article and are all pretty active on socials.

That’s not to say there aren’t improvements to be made. Part of my role on the communication sub group with Martin Robson, Dan MacLennan and Dave Noble is to ensure these improvements continue.

As I’m sure most people understand being both an owner of the club and also a fans group is a tight line to walk and whilst we try to put as much information out there as we can there are certain things that cannot be shared. Feedback both good and bad is shared with the club and we take a role in trying to change or fix issues that arise.

The club are responsive to that feedback and many decisions have been changed because of fan views and the feedback of members.

I’ve seen a few posts on socials requesting a statement from us criticising the football department, be that the management team or the players.

What I want to ask those posters is what would that statement achieve? Over the last 18 months we have done our best to represent the fans views on club boards and leadership groups. This has included on multiple occasions being critical of aspects of the clubs operations both on and off the field.

Obviously not all of these conversations can be public. As you would expect your employer to keep these conversations private too.

Obviously would very much welcome feedback on other improvements you would like to see from us.

It has also been questioned why we were involved in the recruitment of the new head coach. Carlisle United Supporters’ Trust are an owner of Carlisle United, we are a board elected by our members who have chosen Matt as our representative on the 1921 board, he is also part of the leadership group that assists the day to day running of the club.

As an owner of the club, we rightly have a say in decisions made by the club. We cried out for years about how fans' views were not taken into account in decision, such as the inclusion of the U21 teams in the EFL Trophy, surely we should be happy that fans are now helping to make key decisions?

The club have already stated they are looking to bring more expertise in with the new Sporting Director role, but this does not mean that there is none currently in the club. Nigel Clibbens for example has a wealth of experience in hiring managers and running football clubs.  

We have also been accused of being too close to the club. In particular our relationship with the family. The majority of our current board were heavily involved in the takeover. They built up a good relationship during this time.

Why should that be a bad thing? It certainly doesn’t prevent any difficult conversations on decisions. It certainly hasn’t prevented us as a board disagreeing from time to time on some decisions nor has it stopped us from giving your feedback to the family.

The Piatak family, United's owners (Image: Ben Holmes)

If anything the mutual respect has allowed us to be more open with the club and our input is valued and taken on board by the club.

The final criticism I have seen is a claim that some of, if not all of the Trust board are in it for the perks. Having been involved personally for almost a year now I have yet to find out what these perks are.

So far it’s been late nights and weekends picking up issues and organising details for different initiatives. Having to arrange childcare so I can help out with a meeting or do some research into something for the club.

This is not a woe is me tale. I’m not looking for thanks or to be a martyr. I do these things willingly. I do them not for any perceived perks, not that there are any, but because Carlisle United is my football club. I want to help make it better. I want it to be everything it can be so that my kids can enjoy it just as much as I have.

I can confirm from everything I know about the other board members that they all have the same motivations.

I mention this to dispel the myth that the role comes with something it doesn’t.

Whilst I have refuted a few of the criticisms here I know that we are not perfect. We have made good strides towards improvements but there is always room for more.

When we get things wrong we will take on board the feedback. But we must also address it when some of those criticisms are incorrect. Hopefully this also shows our continued commitment to communicate openly and honestly.

I started this article talking about scapegoats. People are looking to apportion blame for where we find ourselves on the field. The truth is it isn’t any one group or person. And the solution isn’t sniping, and throwing everything out of the window. It’s pulling together and fighting in the same direction.

Fixing the last 18 months on the field was never going to be easy. The patience of the fan base has been exhausted and the confidence of the players has suffered. I know I left Brunton Park unhappy on Saturday, but in reality there is no quick fix. No magic wand that can be waived to make all of our troubles go away.

The only way to fix this is winning games. There is a plan to do this. We are at the start of this project and we’ve brought in a head coach and a coaching team who the board believe give us the best chance of executing this plan and giving Carlisle the successful and sustainable football club it deserves. We are also taking steps to appoint a Sporting Director to oversee the overall plan. 

It’s frustrating and upsetting to see the club in the position it is but stick with us, as tempting as it may be to look for a singular issue there isn’t one, there’s many but we can fix them all together.