David’s low-key high hopes
Last updated 12:46, Saturday, 05 July 2008
THE editor might disapprove, but this interview should be read with a pair of scissors close to hand. Every public utterance from Carlisle United’s new controlling regime ought to be snipped out and stored away.
At some point in the future, the claims made by David Allen and his three fellow owners will need to be measured against the reality of the coming months and years.
Allen, the chief executive and public face of the new United board, accepts that Thursday’s unveiling was not accompanied by the detonation of fireworks. The public emotions remain in neutral today.
Then you ask Allen about the roots of this idea to take control of the club from Fred Story and you realise that a low-key, almost monochrome introduction was all part of the plan – and that the days of the grand promise, the screaming ambition, remain locked in Carlisle’s past.
“The four of us got the idea to do this [the takeover] when we realised that other people who were coming along didn’t have the right attitude towards the club,” says Allen, who is careful not to name names but does not discourage us from reading between the lines.
“We respect what has gone on over the last four years, but then you see other people, their style, what they might bring and particularly what they might not bring.
“In the past, before the last four years, people have come in waving big promises around. I don’t think any of them have really come off. They’ve all ended in tears. All I can see is that a good, sensible approach is what is needed. We want success today and we’ll have the party tomorrow.”
Over the course of the interview there is plenty of positive talk of reaching up to the Championship on the same principles put in place by Story since 2004. But can this be done without the departing owner’s influence, and seemingly without the kind of financial injection that an alternative regime might have made – even if that had come with bigger promises and more flamboyant personalities?
Allen roundly dismisses the “sugar-daddy” approach to ownership, as well an accountant might. “I’m not convinced there are many people out there who want that,” he says. “That might be the noisy few, but the really good, sound fans – the majority – will be more than happy and, I think, very relieved at what is happening here.
“They know what’s gone on at the club has been right and we’re going to continue doing it right. When I came here, the club was in administration, it couldn’t pay bills and people don’t realise how dangerous that is.
“It was very, very close to going to the wall. We weren’t making such a big noise about it at the time because we wanted to deal with it quietly, but there were a lot of debts it was struggling to pay. Once Fred took control and put the correct procedures in place to sort it out, those fears subsided.
"The club was paying £160,000 a year interest to Bristol and West, for example. Fred stopped that, he sorted that loan out, he addressed the VAT, PAYE, corporation tax and the club haemorrhaging money. He put it on a proper business footing and it has gone from strength to strength.”
But does it have enough to enable United to leap from its current stable setting into the Championship, and stay there? “I think so, because the model we’ve had for four years has been based on straight talking, hard work and doing things right,” Allen says. “We’ve got a good manager and support staff and admin staff, a good managing director on a day-to-day basis, a good team which just needs tinkered with and finalised … it’s all there. We were very nearly there last season.
“We’ve got a bit to do but I think that model’s right. You can’t just throw money at it and have a party for short-term gain. It has to be sustainable.
“We’ve got to bring some fresh ideas and we will do that. Things will come out in the next few weeks. But we’re not going to jump in with both feet and change things that aren’t broken. You can’t say Fred has done anything wrong and we have ultimate respect for that.”
Fine, high words, but now the pertinent issues stack up. Does the new regime see Carlisle’s future at Brunton Park? “I think we have to,” asserts Allen. “The ground has been here a long time, it’s been improved with the stand at the other side and we have no immediate plans to be doing anything rash.
“There are things to do with the ground, we’ve certainly got ideas about the CBS Stand and in time we have got to utilise that space. There are things in the pipeline.”
What, then, of the times when the boldest decisions have to be made, such as that taken by Story last summer to sack Neil McDonald? In such circumstances, is a quartet of owners three too many?
“It always looks very easy for Fred to make a decision,” says Allen. “He’s very autocratic, he knows his mind and the fact he got rid of that manager as quickly as he did and made that decision, you’ve got to respect him.
“He doesn’t dilly-dally. We’ve got to be the same and decisions will be made when they need to be made. This isn’t a council committee. We’re a board of directors that is clinical in what it wants to achieve.”
Questions on John Ward and his staff elicit warm responses from Allen. Plainly, the manager has the full faith of the new regime. Promises to strengthen the squad were duly laid down in Thursday’s press conference (if not accompanied by minute detail), but what of Nottingham Forest’s public pursuit of Joe Garner, and the issue of keeping the other existing talents at Brunton Park? Will there be significant departures before August 9’s kick-off?
“We can’t comment on that,” says Allen, warily, “but overall we’ve got to be strengthening the squad. We can only do that by keeping our good players and attracting other good players.
“Joe Garner is training with the first team, albeit in rehab. He’s still a member of our squad, although it’s no secret Nottingham Forest have approached us.” And does that approach represent a concrete offer and an imminent deal, or a mere show of interest?
“It’s early days yet,” is Allen’s frustratingly vague response.
How will the new regime deal with the United Trust, the source of so much background acrimony during Story’s time in charge?
“Anyone who wants to work for the benefit of the club, we want to be working with them,” is all Allen will currently say on that matter.
How long, then, might this new four-man team stay at the helm? Is there, for instance, a five-year plan sitting freshly in the filing cabinet? It appears not.
“We’ll be here for as long as it works,” Allen says. “It’s a difficult job and we’ve just got to work hard at it.
“If there is somebody out there that’s going to do a better job than us, we’re not going to stand in their way.”
The questions will continue to land like hailstones in the days and weeks ahead.
For the moment, other business can be summarised thus: Story is remaining as a major sponsor and, although selling up and leaving the board, is plainly not departing the scene altogether.
Allen is adamant that the £1.5m the club still owes to Story’s construction firm does not threaten to become a damaging issue (of all the promises, this may be the one that requires the closest scrutiny).
New signings, it seems, can be expected soon. The club’s long-maligned PR structure has even received a tweak, with former News & Star sports editor Vic Gibson assuming significant duties on the publicity front.
Thursday’s unveiling, which was hardly an exercise in firing the spirit, suggests his task might not be simple. None of United’s four owners appeared remotely at ease under the heat of public attention.
But Allen responds to that observation with this message: “I think people will find I’m pretty robust.
“I’m a nice, quiet guy who doesn’t play a big part in most things, but the part I do play I’ll be getting right.”
The concluding mission statement now follows. Again, have those scissors to hand.
“We’re really positive about it. In fact, we’re buzzing. The club is in local ownership, we’ve got a good sound base, we’ve got aspirations to build it and we want everyone to come on board. If they do, we can make it work.”
