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'Chaos - but exciting' - Simmo on Blues' summer revamp
Paul Simpson says this summer at Carlisle United has been “chaos” under the Piataks – but he’s not complaining.
Recent weeks have seen Brunton Park a hive of activity amid major stadium renovation work.
That work is continuing apace as United aim to have a transformed East Stand ready for the new season along with a host of other changes at the ground.
United’s American owners are also planning to build a new training ground as the pace of off-field change at the club speeds up.
Manager Simpson admits the amount of changes at the Blues is unprecedented – even though his focus remains firmly on ensuring the football side of things also measures up.
“[It’s been] chaos – absolute chaos,” said Simpson.
“But it’s really exciting, isn’t it?
“As a football fan of a football club, you want it to be successful, don't you? You want it to prosper and you want to see a future for it.
“As I’ve said before, the previous board did an incredible job to actually keep this club going and you have to take your hats off to them for what they did.
“But with the new investment that's coming, with the change of the ownership, it has taken us to another point where we can invest in the stadium, [something like] £5 million in infrastructure around here.
“At the moment it's really difficult to see it because it's a building site, but the plans for it are absolutely incredible and the plans for the training facility are incredible.”
Carlisle are kitting out the East Stand with new lounges and executive boxes, whilst creating a new fan zone and other facilities in the Warwick Road End.
In the Main Stand, changing room areas are being transformed while the Neil Sports Centre has also had a major refurbishment – and the main fan zone now benefits from a huge big screen which has been in use during United’s popular Euro 2024 fan events.
Simpson, while delighted to see such progress, says it will not distract him from the importance of putting a competitive team together for the League Two season.
He has made six summer signings so far including this week’s eyecatching arrival of Charlie Wyke.
“[The off-field developments are] a big challenge for Nigel [Clibbens, chief executive], for Suzanne [Kidd, finance director], for the commercial staff, all of these, because they're the ones who have to focus on all of that,” added Simpson at United’s recent fixtures breakfast event.
“I'll be honest with you, I'm being selfish now because I want to focus on the football.
“Having a nice big screen out there and having some new exec boxes aren’t going to keep me in my job.
“I want to get a team out there that's successful, and if I do that, then I might give myself a chance of staying in my job a bit longer.”
