Carlisle United’s new manager Paul Simpson cancelled a holiday with his wife Jacqui to get stuck into the job at Brunton Park.
And he intends to make iy up to her at the end of the season while celebrating Carlisle’s League Two safety being assured.
Settling in again at Brunton Park the former manager said: “I want to have a good time for 10-and-a-half weeks, and I do owe Jacqui a holiday, because I’ve had to cancel the holiday to Lanzarote which was booked for next Thursday.
“But that’s life. She understands. She knows how crazy I am. And we’ll get our chance.”
By having a good time, he means doing everything he can to ensure Carlisle finish out of the bottom two.
He said: “People say never go back but people also say never say never. I don’t really care. I’m not bothered. It’s quite strange, all through my footballing life, and the way I’ve tried to bring the kids up, I’ve always said, don’t worry what anybody else thinks, do what you think’s the right thing to do.
“I felt this was the right thing to do. People can think what they like. People thought I should never have left. People thought I should have got sacked at Preston, some thought I shouldn’t.
“It doesn’t matter, if I’m not very good, I won’t be here, I’ll get the sack, it’s as simple as that. I’m here to do a job, I’m loving the opportunity.”
Simpson has also been quick to emphasis that he’s happy working with the staff he’s inherited – the one exception being goalkeeper coach Paul Gerrard who has joined at the same time.
“It’s a very small staff, and I’ve been involved in the past where supporters have looked in and thought – they’ve been part of the situation that’s got us here, they should all be cleared out – but it isn’t easy just to go and get a clean group of staff to bring in.
“These staff are here, they’re all competent at doing their jobs, and I’m happy to work with them. That was one of things I was asked when I was called, about what I thought of the staff situation, and I told them I was more than happy to work with them.
“I can accommodate and fit in with most people, and I’d like to think it’s going to work. I don’t see the need to bring anybody else in, but if I don’t see it working and if I don’t think they’re the right people then I’m in a position where I can go and say that it needs to be changed.
“We’re working on such a short scale of time, we have 10 weeks to go, so that means it can’t be somebody who is already in a job.
“If you’re recruiting you’re going to take somebody who is already out of work, and there are some good people like that out there, but hopefully this group will show me they’ve got the energy and enthusiasm to do what’s needed.
“As coaches, we have to put on a show, paint the smile on, regardless of what the results have been, and we have to make sure we create an environment where the players are comfortable with working hard.”
Simpson has also been talking about the SOS call he got from the Carlisle board to return and save the club from relegation.
“I thought it was really interesting because from the night I got the call to come and help, I started to look at the group and the team that’s been picked over recent weeks, and I wrote down a shape and a team that I thought would be right for this weekend.
“When I came in and sat with Gavin on Wednesday he told me that they’d actually been working on the same thing. There’s a bit of a crossover with our ideas. We had different personnel involved in different areas, but I don’t think we’re far away with our thinking.
“Hopefully it’s something that’ll work, and we’ve just got to try and get a bit of consistency so that we can free these lads up a little bit so that they can enjoy playing football, which they obviously haven’t been able to do lately.
“I was told in a call on Tuesday that this is the group you’ve got, this is what you’re going to work with, you can’t do anything about it, so what do you think. Again, if I didn’t want it, if I didn’t think we had a chance, I’d have said no.
“I actually asked the question have I missed something at the start of the conversation, because I’ve not seen that you’ve let the manager go, they said no, it’s going to be done tomorrow, face to face.
“I said if you do it properly, and speak face to face, then I’ll speak to you tomorrow and we’ll get something sorted out.
“It literally was you’re coming into a difficult situation, there’s going to be changes behind the scenes, the other staff are all going to stay, this is the squad you’re going to work with, what do you think?
“I’m taking it, I’m going to go with what we’ve got, and I think we have the players in there to get us the results.”
Simpson takes his Carlisle side to Leyton Orient today ands they are one step behind the Cumbrians. They parted company with their manager this week, but have only appointed a caretaker ahead of the game.
Orient’s 2-0 home defeat to Bristol Rovers on Tuesday (Kenny Jackett’s last game in charge) was their eighth defeat in 10 League Two outings.
O’s supporters have not seen their side win since their December 7 success against Swindon, which left them in seventh place.
In their slide down the table they have scored just two goals in 11 games in all competitions.
