With the first January signing completed, Carlisle United manager Keith Millen is hopeful of more recruits in the near future.
Altrincham defender Joel Senior was signed in time for him to join the first training session of the week, and as the transfer business started for real.
Millen told the club website: “It’s nice to get the first one done early in the window. We’ve got a few others who are close, but we won’t get too excited until they actually sign and are in the building.
“Having said that, if I was a betting man, I would probably put some money on us maybe having one or two more in time for Bradford.
“I’m certainly not frustrated at the moment, because it’s still early days. We’ve had a few who have fallen by the wayside, but that happens.
“That’s why you don’t only have one target, you need to have two or three so that if one drops away you’re ready to go for the next one.
“If you put all your eggs in one basket and it falls away, that’s when you can get frustrated. We’ve missed out on a few, but we’ve quickly moved on to our next one and that’s the process we’ve put in place.
“Hopefully we’ll see the rewards from that later in the week.
“We were hoping to get some done early and that’s how it’s panned out. It’s been difficult because of Covid, and what you’ve found is a lot of the top clubs are hoarding some of their players because they’re worried about the size of their squads.
“Some of the players we’ve spoken about, we’ve been told you might have to wait until the end of January, which you don’t really want to do.
“If we can get a few more through the door this week we’d have done really well. It’ll mean they were our targets and there won’t be many deals done this early, I don’t think.
“If we can, it’s great, because it’s more games for them to be involved in.”
Long-term target
Talking on the first recruit Senior, Millen revealed that he’s a player the club have been looking at since last April.
The 22-year-old has now been given an 18-month contract and given a third opportunity with a league club after previous stints with Oldham and Burnley, Millen has described him as hungry to succeed.
“I think he won all of the end of season awards at Altrincham last year and his stats on assists and things like that are really good.
“When they showed me his clips it looked like an interesting one, and I’ve been able to watch him three times now.
“He’s probably the player I’ve watched more than anyone, so we’ve certainly done our homework on him.
“He’s a young player who has had a taste at the top level at Burnley, and he was unlucky with COVID and different things there. He’s done really well at Altrincham for 18 months and he deserves his chance now.
“I see him as a real prospect, with a lot of potential. He’s come here to fight for a place, but he’s got great athleticism and he can get up and down the pitch.
“A big thing is he can play on both sides, and that’s one of the things that attracted me to him. He’s predominantly a right-back, but I’ve watched him a couple of times at left-back and he can play that role as well.
“We’re short in that area so it’s good he’s here to compete on both sides of defence. He’s a great signing for the club but we’ve got to do some work with him.”
Defender returns to Arsenal
Millen has also confirmed that defender Jonathan Dinzeyi, 22, has returned to parent club Arsenal following a half-season spell with the Blues.
The 22-year-old was a summer deadline signing and made three appearances, including one in the league when he was at the heart of the defence for the October home game against Forest Green.
United have also released teenage midfielder Keelan Leslie as his short-term deal, agreed at the end of his youth scholarship programme in May, has come to a close.
He spent time on loan with neighbours Workington earlier in the season.
