Carlisle United have made their seventh signing of the summer by adding Dundalk full-back Archie Davies to their League Two squad.
United paid an undisclosed fee for the 25-year-old defender who has been playing since February in the League of Ireland, turning out 22 times for Dundalk who lie next to bottom.
Born at St. Leonards-on-Sea started his career in the youth system at Crystal Palace but soon moved to Brighton.
When he was released by the Seagulls in 2020 he joined Crawley Town and went on to play 67 times in two seasons before joining Aldershot where he made 28 appearances.
He switched to Dundalk last year and has gone on to make 57 appearances for the League of Ireland strugglers. Highlight was making the League’s Team of the Year for 2023.
As a footnote to his career so far, though, Davies is still waiting for his first senior goal.
United manager Paul Simpson told the club wesite: “It’s a position I’ve made quite clear I’ve been looking to fill. We’ve been working for weeks now to try and get this over the line so I’m really pleased it’s all done.
“We’ve done a lot of background work on him and he’s a player who is highly sought after in that area of the pitch, there were a lot of clubs after him so I’m delighted he’s chosen to come to us.
“Greg has been over a few times to watch him and we’ve had videos and data from him. We’ve spoken to people about him and done our background work.
“The challenge for Archie now is to transfer what he’s done over in Ireland back into the EFL. We think it’s a step up, but from what we’ve seen we think he’s more than capable of holding his own.
“We’ve done things properly with Dundalk and we’ve been straight with them all the way through. Greg has had conversations with the owner and the chief executive and I’ve had a conversation with Jon Daly the manager.
“They were in a bit of a tricky position because Archie’s contract was up at the end of their season in November and he wanted to try and test himself back in England.
“If we’d have waited another month we maybe could have signed him on a pre-contract and got him for nothing in January, but we didn’t feel it was fair to do it that way.
“We’ve spoken to the club and managed to agree a deal for him so we can take him straight away. Dundalk have been fantastic with the way they’ve dealt with it even though they were really reluctant to sell him.
“The bonus for us is that he’s coming in fully fit because he’s already played 22 games this season. We’re going to have to manage him over the season as much as we can so he doesn’t end up having an 80-game season and we wear him out.
“That’s why I want to try and have two players for each position. We’ve got Jack Ellis who has done a really good job when he’s been available, and Ben Barclay can slot into there if we need him to as well.”
