Greg Abbott - Radio Cumbria Interview

Last updated : 06 February 2009 By Thetashkentterror

Blues boss Greg Abbott
United manager Greg Abbott spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's Derek Lacey on Friday morning, Abbott first giving his opinions on the January transfer window before later discussing the situation about leading goalscorer Danny Graham being out of contract this summer :


" In a way I am relieved that the transfer window is closed and in a way not. I think that with clubs like us it could do with being open all year long then we could do our business properly and steadily and carefully. Rather than be rushed and battered into submission at times and doing things that you don't want to do, or at the wrong time for your club.

" You are always working behind the bigger clubs and sometimes their movement doesn't happen until late on in the month, and it gives you little or no time to do what you have wanted to do. It is a period where it creates uncertainty and speculation, so for that instance I am probably pleased that is over and we can get on with the job of playing football now with what we think is a decent squad.

" I think that it is even worse for the smaller clubs because you haven't got the money to do things at any one particular moment. The big clubs can do their work and then we have to work behind them, if they buy a big player, then the players down below filter down and the one that might fall off the end of the ladder becomes available.

" It might not be the period of January where we have got the money to do something about that. It might be that we are in a better position to do it in February or March or August or September. So you are putting pressure on the smaller clubs then to find that revenue and do it all in a short period of time, which I think is unfair.

" We were disappointed with a couple of targets that we had weren't available or were too expensive. You get quoted some figures and then you get quoted other figures, I think that people do abuse the transfer window and say to themselves that they have got to do it so we will inflate the price, that is another downside of it. "



" After the terrific run that we had, the home games that we had, we were comfortable with the squad. We have got to not just go too daft on thinking that the games against Colchester and half a game against Tranmere has made us a bad team. We have got a good squad, a really solid squad, people are talking about another striker but people have been shouting and bawling at me to play Michael Bridges, and Scott Dobie or Gary Madine.

" If you bring a striker in then where do they fit in, you have to leave one of those out because Danny Graham has near enough cemented his place with his goals. So you can create yourself a problem, what we have got to do is hope that these players, and the players that we have got, perform like we know they can. Then it is an ongoing process of improving the squad and we are improving the squad as we go along.

" The signing of Graham Kavanagh was a big one, Lewis Neal looks a good player, he is a Championship player with 150 or 160 games to his credit, so he is a good player. Joe Anyinsah has come in who we think is going to be a good player, so work has been done but sometimes fans want to see money spent to justify that being as a major transfer.

" The deal with Graham Kavanagh was a big deal for the club though, to secure him was a big deal. Lewis has come in on a decent deal for the club and the same with Joe. So work has been done, other players we are hoping that we can get at the right time, and we will continue to do that. I am really confident that the squad is improving and we are building on it and we are going to add to it as we go along all the time. "



" The one that everyone was talking about was Danny (Graham) and if Danny had gone then it would have triggered off a number of other things which we had in place. Danny hasn't gone so my strike-force is decent, I have got strength and competition down the wide, we have got a good group of midfield players, at the back we have got competition now all across the back four.

" So there is not to say we might not do one or two loan signings when the window opens again, but the players that we wanted or we would have gone for weren't of a high necessity if you like because of the situation with our players. So what we are saying is that the players who we thought were good enough against MK Dons, Leeds and Huddersfield, we have shown faith in that.

" If we think that we need to strengthen that then we have got options there when the loan market opens again. If anything should happen with players at the end of the season then we have still got the targets that we already had through the window, which we are going to continue to monitor. There are always targets, there are always players better than we have got out there. It is our job to hunt them down and find out their availability and try to be quick with players that we want.

" You don't want to give too much away again because we lose out through financial clout, which is part of the reason I am trying to keep things close to my chest. Not because I don't want people to find out about targets, because as soon as people do find out then we tend to alert other clubs and then we are on the back foot in terms of finance. You then get your bigger clubs and Leeds United and Leicester City and then your Championship clubs come knocking on your door. "



" There was nothing more on Danny Graham, a lot of movement might have happened if Danny had gone and we were ready for all that. We were ready for if somebody else had gone, we were ready for those situations and that is the little club having to do their work behind what the big clubs or the bigger clubs or the clubs with more financial clout might do.

" If we had lost Danny and we hadn't done something then we would have got crucified but we did have a gameplan in place for that and we would have got the player that we wanted had anything happened there. It didn't though and we are pleased about that because Danny is scoring goals and he is a really important player for us at the minute.

" I am absolutely delighted, you have heard teams moaning this week about not having a proven goalscorer and that a proven goalscorer would make a big difference to them. Well he is a proven goalscorer and we are delighted to have him.

" I would like to think that he is happy here, I would like to think that he has developed his game here. He knows that he is indebted to Carlisle for the opportunity that we have given him, and we are indebted to him for the goals that he has scored for us. So it is a level situation at the minute but Danny will want to go on and progress his career at some point.

" What we have got to try to do is to make sure that when that happens we are in the best possible position to get as much as we can for Danny if that situation arises. If it doesn't then I will be more than happy, if he continues scoring goals for us and he signs a contract then I will be delighted. If we are powerless to prevent that then we need to make sure that we look after ourselves in that situation. "