Owner Tom Piatak has moved to dismiss speculation that Liam Sweeting was influential in Carlisle United’s appointment of Mike Williamson.

Sweeting, the MK Dons sporting director, was in the frame for a similar position at Brunton Park in the autumn.

He turned down the move at the last minute whilst the Blues were also in the process of hiring Williamson as head coach.

Sweeting remained at MK Dons who, after securing compensation for Williamson, went on to appoint Scott Lindsey.

The series of events has led to rumours among fans regarding Sweeting’s potential involvement in the decision for Carlisle to appoint Williamson.

But Piatak, asked at Tuesday's forum about the Sweeting situation, said any such suggestion was untrue.

“Liam Sweeting had absolutely no influence of hiring Mike Williamson. Those are just rumours out there,” the Blues owner said.

“I can categorically say, Liam Sweeting had no influence over the hiring of Mike Williamson here at Carlisle United Football Club. End of story. Stop that rumour.”

Sweeting had agreed to join United but rejected the move at the 11th hour in favour of an improved deal at MK Dons – who visit Brunton Park in League Two this weekend.

United chief executive Nigel Clibbens went on to explain the recruitment process for the sporting director, which was re-opened after Sweeting’s rejection, as the Blues ultimately appointed Rob Clarkson.

His comments and those from Piatak amount to the first time United have publicly acknowledged that Sweeting was the man they were set to hire first time around.

Clibbens said: “When we were meeting potential sporting directors for interview, we were saying to them as part of that process, ‘If you get this job, who are you going to be recommending and putting forward to be our head coach to fulfil the mandate we’ve all set?’

Nigel Clibbens (Image: Ben Holmes)

“When we talked to different people, they were almost giving us their shortlist as we were going – that gave us a good idea of who we should be looking at.

“In parallel we were talking to the people we needed to about those coaches.

“We got to the end of that process, made an offer, it was accepted and then we started working on the process to get that person out of that club, at the same time in the knowledge we would then try and go with the names of the head coaches that everybody had put forward.

“Interestingly, everybody who we spoke to – and we spoke to a lot of people, a lot of interviews, over a number of days, in Manchester – throughout the process Mike’s name was coming up all the time.

“Sporting directors look at metrics, fits, alignment with what we’re trying to do. They all said, based on what you want to do at Carlisle United, this is the guy who fits your bill.

“So we already knew who we were honing in on right through that process.

“We got who we thought was our sporting director, he accepted the offer, he came to Carlisle, we met him, talked about this for a number of days, we agreed terms of a deal and thought we had our man. But then he changed his mind, simple as that.

“In terms of getting Mike from MK Dons, that person never had any contact with MK Dons about Mike. That was all by me, direct to their new CEO.

“They had new owners in, we knew they were making new structural changes, hiring a new CEO. His first job was taking calls from me about their sporting director, and the next day he was taking calls about their head coach.

“It’s no surprise that faced with losing [both], and being in the job for two days, their CEO did everything he could with their ownership to avoid that happening, and sort a deal for Liam which then he couldn’t refuse.

“No disrespect to any of that. It happens in football, it hasn’t happened to me before but you’ve got to deal with it.”

Rob Clarkson (Image: Richard Parkes)

Clibbens said Clarkson had not applied for the role first time around, as he had just started a new job, but then the former Manchester City, Rangers and Football Association man applied in the second phase of the process.

“We picked Rob as the best man for the job,” said Clibbens. We think he’s a great appointment and he’s shown that already.

“We think that’s been a great decision we’ve made, and similarly we’re backing Mike because we think that’s a good decision that we’ve made as well.”

Read a full recap of the fans forum as it happened HERE