Former United boss Paul Simpson (PS) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) and Grant Holt (GH) this evening regarding the sacking of Greg Abbott, Simpson again throwing his hat into the ring for the vacant managerial position at Brunton Park:
JP
It is a shame that we are talking to you in this context?
PS
I think we all know the unfortunate side of football when managers lose their job, and as much as it a strange scenario I am talking to you tonight and no doubt you are going to ask about whether I am interested in the position. It is still disappointing that Greg Abbott has lost his job and I don’t think anybody likes to see a manager or any person losing their job whatever walk of life.
So, it is always difficult but it is part and parcel of football. I made contact with Greg yesterday just to say I think he can be incredibly proud of the job he has done over the five years that he has been with Carlisle United. It is just unfortunate that last season wasn’t a great year and he has had a poor start, and this the stage you get to when that happens.
JP
So, are you interested?
PS
I would be interested, yeah I would, I have made that quite clear. My view was always that when I was asked in the past about returning to Carlisle was that I have always said I wouldn’t talk about it because Greg Abbott was in the job there and it would be totally disrespectful to talk about anybody’s job when they are still actually sitting in the seat.
So, I would never have discussed it but yeah, I want to coach, I want to work. I have had a really good experience over the last 16 months working in Portugal and coaching in an Academy over there. I have had a period of time where I have been out of work and I have gained the chance to be able to think about where it all went well and where it all went badly.
I think it is only when you are out of work that you actually get the chance to sit and take stock of everything that has gone on and try to make yourself better. Not only as a coach and as a manager but as a person, and I think that is where I am at the moment.
JP
In terms of your time here, of course you do know that when you left for what the Carlisle fans consider to be quite a big rival some of them weren’t happy with that, are you confident that if you did get this opportunity you could win over those fans who felt their noses were perhaps put out of joint there?
PS
Well, the truth is that any manager will only win fans over if you win games of football, that is the top and bottom of it. If I left Carlisle United however many years ago it was and everybody was delighted that I left, then if I came back into it again I would still have to win games of football to win people over because that is what football fans turn up to see.
I was in a position where I had a year left on my contract, we couldn’t agree on an extension to my contract and I got an offer to go and manage at Championship level and I took the opportunity. I have got to be honest, I think 99 out of 100 people would do exactly the same thing and football is a crazy world.
GH
Of course you are going to take the job, if you are a manager it doesn’t matter if it is Preston or Hartlepool or whoever, if someone is going to offer you a job, even professionally as a player which you know, and someone in the Championship says that you have got a year left on your contract and you can come up to the Championship regardless of who it is, at the end of the day it is a business, it is your livelihood.
As a manager you don’t just always go for that, you go for the job, you go to better yourself. At that moment in time the Championship is a massive step to a club that was chucking a lot of money about at the time to try to go to that next level.
No matter what you are, you have had a fantastic football career and what you want to do as a manager is progress and unfortunately for you it didn’t go as planned at Preston and there were a few things in the background they didn’t tell you, but that is just life and that is football?
PS
Yeah, it is, and these are the things you only learn by having that experience. I went and managed at that level and it was a great experience, people are critical of my time at Preston but I am still the only manager to take Preston to the top of the Championship in the last 55 years. I spent about £2million and brought about £13million into the football club.
So, it wasn’t such a disaster but unfortunately we missed out on the play-offs on the last game of the season, we beat Birmingham but it wasn’t enough to get into the play-offs. Unfortunately because of, well not unfortunately, for Preston it was a good thing, the previous couple of seasons they had got to the play-offs but failed.
Now, I failed to get to the play-offs and then at the start of the next season when we had a poor start I am under pressure and I lose my job. I understand that that is the nature of football, I still speak to Derek Shaw now even though he sacked me, because I respected that he had to make the decision. Just like I am sure Greg Abbott respects Andrew Jenkins and John Nixon and the board at Carlisle that they had to make a decision.
But, you learn from it, it is all part of the experience, I made a decision, I still don’t to this day regret moving on because at the time it was the right thing to do. I am now in a position where I want to be back in coaching and in managing, I am involved in football doing a role for the Premier League but I want to be involved on the coaching side.
I want to be involved on the day to day organisation of a team and the excitement and anger and anguish that goes with a result on a Saturday. I want to be involved in that because when you have been it in since 1982, it has been a long time that it has been in my blood and in my way of life, but I want to be back involved in it.
JP
Mark Ward has been in touch, a Carlisle fan on twitter, he asks if you have got unfinished work to do at Carlisle?
PS
No, I don’t think that is the right thing to say really is unfinished work. I think I have got something to offer, I don’t regret leaving and that is not me trying to be clever, I don’t have any regrets because I don’t think you can have any regrets in football and in life.
You do what you think is the right thing to do, I have always taken that view, but I have a view that I have something to offer football. Carlisle is my home club, I have something that I think I can offer Carlisle United. But, it is not ultimately my decision, it is a decision that the board of directors will make in due course and we will see what comes.