John Nixon - Radio Cumbria Interview

John Nixon

" We were obviously concerned earlier in the season at our attendances, we've averaged now I think just over 7,800 in the Football League which is slightly above last year. We've just got to offer, first of all, a better experience at Carlisle United. Which I think we are doing by the position that we are in in the league and then the excitement that we can give people.

" The other thing though is to introduce the club and football to younger members of the public and to young children. We are doing that by our pricing policy to try to get more and more youngsters in. Really following a path that we picked up from Norwich City who started many years ago with about a 9,000 average gate and are now sitting at 17,000-18,000.

" There has no been increase in season ticket prices for next season, and again, very much angled towards the younger people who are coming through the gates, 7-11 years old. In the teenagers as well it is a pretty good deal and so we can try to get those people in, get them in and make them fans, then hopefully we keep them for life.

" It was a disappointing end to the season I think to a degree, but it's progress. If you go Conference, League Two, League One eighth and League One fourth then obviously we are looking to push on next year. It is progress though and I think that is really what the backbone of the club is. Fred (Story) came in and stabilised the club, and I think that the directors who are there now have helped to do that. I think it reflects on the field that we have got a stable club, and we are prepared to go forward with it. Sometimes beating last year's performance is going to be difficult, but it's a challenge isn't it. "

" We have got to provide the wherewithal so that the manager and the coaching staff can bring in the players that they particularly want. Particularly with that sort of agenda in mind, of experience, and for example they will be meeting us this week and probably next week to ensure that we can meet their needs.

" They have got to look at whether or not they need the blend of youth and experience, sometimes you need the youth just to keep going on and you need the experience just to calm them down at those difficult times. So that has definitely got to be a playing side decision as to who they want and our job is to provide them with the wherewithal to do it.

" Of course there are players available and when you look at the number of lists that come in my fax and on John Ward's fax on a weekly basis you can see really how many football players are available in the Football League. They have got to be the players that the coaching and manager want though, not the players that are available, I think that is important.

" The lists are one thing, I think that the work that the coaching staff and manager have been doing all the way through the season is important. So that you don't just go chasing after shadows and chasing after names. It is important that they have looked at the players two or three times, they have got the full background of the player and have seen them play good games and not so good games. When they do come and ask us to move forward and negotiate then they do understand what the player is about and how they are going to fit into the team.

" There aren't really any players on the lists that we can't afford but a list is a list is a list at the end of the day. I just pass them forward from my fax through to the manager and the coaching staff. As I repeat, it has got to be the people that they actually want to fit into the team. If their name is there, and it was the right name and they wanted him then I think that we would move heaven and earth to get them. "

" I think that it is the wrong thing to rush at lists and look at lists, and see names and chase after them. We've been in that sort of a situation once or twice and quite frankly those names haven't turned out, although they didn't sign for Carlisle, didn't turn out really to work out at other clubs either. So chasing names isn't the right thing, you have got to chase the experience and what the manager wants.

" Under the Bosman ruling Keiren (Westwood) will be 24 in October of course and I think that everybody is aware of that. He still has another year on his contract and he is currently under negotiation at this point in time. A little bit difficult because he is in Ireland at present playing for the Irish team, but I'm sure that we will get something sorted out in the next couple of weeks with him.

" Players getting picked for national sides shows that the development in the club is right, I think that is the key issue. It means that young players can come through, because if you remember Keiren came to us from Manchester City, almost as a player who they were letting go on a free transfer. So it's the development of young players and the way that they are coached and the way that they are brought on that is important.

" That's where I think our youth policy is probably the backbone of what we are trying to do for the future. I think that Eric (Kinder) has brought us that experience, he has brought the experience of a Premier League club, from Blackburn. He could see that a lot of young foreign players were coming into England and the UK and replacing a lot of good homegrown talent.

" He wasn't happy about that and he came to Carlisle and he is now able to fulfil what he wants to do and bring youngsters through the systems that are born in England and born in the UK and he is doing really well. So it's the experience again isn't it, we've been able to bring that in and Eric has brought in another dimension. I'm sure that the work that Eric is doing will pay off significantly in the next three or four years. "

" The priority this summer is obviously to ensure that we are going forward with some degree of balancing our books, because the stability has got to remain there all the way through the club. The second priority is to ensure that between the manager and the coaching staff, and on the financial side and Fred and the directors, that infact we have a plan and we can satisfy their needs and continue to build on what we are doing.

" Then the third issue is the facilities, and of course as you are aware we have got to do a significant amount this year with the playing surface again. Two years after laying it down it is ready for a major overhaul, and that will start next Tuesday. We're talking of a good five figure sum there, and it's a bit frightening but we need to do it and of course we are expanding our training facilities to other areas of the city as well.

" So they are being developed by, if you just watch where the Story Construction vehicles are going at present then you will be able to find out where we are at. They are being developed, so we should have a new training ground outside of the club, we should have a new surface on Brunton Park and we should have a better surface on our training pitch at Brunton Park. So all of these other issues are very important for the stability and the forward thinking of the club.

" The pitch maintenance work that we are doing in the summer is only going to go down 20mm, whereas the undersoil pipes are down some nine or ten inches I think, so there is a significant difference. We are not going to go that deep otherwise we are starting again. I think that the thing with the undersoil heating is that there are some good points and some bad points.

" There is a considerable cost in getting it up and running, and getting the boiler system in and all sorts of things to go with it. At the same time there is an indication of some people within the sport of course. That if you put in heat into the bottom of the soil and the heat goes up to the surface then it starts to dry out the root and you can't waste the grass in that way.

" Wolves for example had undersoil heating this year and still had matches postponed because they have got to start running it about a week to eight days in advance of the frost getting into the ground, so that they ensure that it doesn't penetrate. So there are all sorts of reasons probably why we haven't connected it up, at the same time we will probably look ourselves at other ways of protecting that pitch in the coming winter. "