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Simpson: Why Carlisle United need to sign big 'characters'
Paul Simpson says the recruitment of strong “characters” is essential at Carlisle United this summer.
The manager feels getting in the right personalities will be vital to his attempt to turn things around after relegation.
Bringing in strong characters was a hallmark of Simpson’s first spell in charge at Brunton Park and he admitted something similar is needed now.
“That’s what we need. We have to have that,” he said.
“When you’re struggling, you see a lot about people’s characters.
“We’ve learned some things this season, and that’s the challenge.
“It’s really hard to gauge characters but we try to do our due diligence, find out about people, find out about the targets we’re wanting, and we have to hope we get more right than we get wrong.”
That, added Simpson, was part of the aim to rid the team of the losing culture that has taken hold en route to the bottom of League One and relegation back to the fourth tier.
“What we’ve got to do over the summer is get players in who have character, ability, physicality, so that when they come in, they’re adding to what we’ve got here, and they make it a positive dressing room,” he added.
“It’s how we start the pre-season campaign, how we get going, how we deal with the games, how we start the season. And that’s the only thing we can focus on – making sure that’s good.”
While Simpson has conceded the squad needs “major surgery”, he also insists that he feels he can rely on many of those who will be retained this summer.
“I can. I think we’ve got some players in there who will help us moving forward,” the manager added.
“There are players in there who, I’ll be honest with you, I would like to move on because it hasn’t worked for one reason or another.
“But we have got a big job to put a squad together, and we have a chance to put a squad together that will try and get us success next season.”
