Paul Simpson has spoken about the Piataks’ transfer window approach in an interview reflecting on his time at Carlisle United.
The former Blues boss said Carlisle’s American owners were keen to spend whatever it took to get players in last January.
But Simpson said he did not feel that was the right approach for the sake of dressing room harmony.
Discussing how players’ demands can increase in transfer windows, Simpson said: “I spend a club’s money as if it’s my own. I’ve been in a situation in the last two windows where I’ve got an ownership group saying, ‘No – just give him it’.
“I’m like, ‘No, that’s not the right thing to do’. That doesn't give the right impression to the rest of the dressing room.
“Players talk. They will say, ‘I’m earning this’…and the ones who aren’t start knocking on the door and give you a problem. I try to dig my heels in and say I’m not doing it that way.
“You have to respect the financial position of a football club and make sure you do it properly. Sometimes it costs you because you don’t get the player, but you have to respect the club and the finances.”
Simpson, speaking on the Rams Review podcast, also discussed the “chaotic” closing stages of the January 2024 window which led to a last-gasp “gamble” on the signing of striker Georgie Kelly.
He said United moved for the injury-hit Rotherham United player after previous targets had fallen through.
The Blues boss also said the decision to sign Kelly was agreed among coaching staff as well as chief executive Nigel Clibbens, and he admitted the move backfired.
“Last year at Carlisle United, that was probably the most chaotic transfer deadline day that I’ve ever been involved in,” Simpson said.
“That was the situation we found ourselves in, where we were in the bottom places of the league, and were really struggling in League One.
“We were desperately trying to bring a striker in and things fell through that you’d been working on for weeks and weeks, then you’re scrambling around to find another option.
“On that particular day we brought two players in, one failed his medical and we had to send him back, an hour before the deadline, and the other was also struggling with a slight injury that as a group of staff with the CEO involved, we made a decision to take a gamble.
“Unfortunately the gamble didn’t work.” Kelly has had an injury-plagued year at United since then, making just 13 appearances without scoring. He is currently on the sidelines with a calf problem.
Simpson also discussed the nature of recruitment meetings, and how lists of potential targets would be narrowed down.
But he pointedly said that he was not a fan of certain aspects of data when it came to analysing players - including one particular metric which was often cited by his successor Mike Williamson.
“I’m not a big believer in paying attention to xG [expected goals] and all that sort of stuff,” he said.
“I don’t care if it was a good or a bad chance – if they’ve finished it, brilliant. That [xG] for me is a load of rubbish.
“I want to know the player, all about them, what they can bring to the team, where they would fit in with our team.”
The full interview with Simpson, who left the Blues a day after last summer’s transfer window amid a struggling start following 2023/24’s relegation from League One, can be found " target="_blank" class="link"> HERE.
