Carlisle United have officially announced the appointment of Mike Williamson as their new head coach.
So far, though, there’s no mention of a sporting director who was to be part of the new duo to drive the team forward.
It is believed that Carlisle wanted to make it a double swoop and appoint MK Dons’ sporting director Liam Sweeting alongside Williamson.
But it appears as though Sweeting has agreed a new deal to stay at MK Dons while Carlisle have had to pay a substantial amount to meet their new head coach’s release clause – said to be £200,000.
In a released statement, MK Dons stated they attempted to retain Williamson, but he expressed interest in joining Carlisle once the Blues activated a release clause in his contract.
Williamson will bring along coaches Carl Magnay, and Ian Watson, along with physiotherapist Chris Bell who were also part of his team at MK Dons and previously at Gateshead.
Gateshead-born Magnay is 35 and started his career at Chelsea in 2009. A full-back, he did not make the first team and had brief loan spells at MK Dons and Northampton.
He dropped into non-League with his home-town club Gateshead, clocking up 67 appearances before spending a season with Grimsby Town where he won the club’s Player of the Season award.
In 2015, he joined League Two club Hartlepool United and became club captain in his third season with them before departing at the end of his fourth season after over 100 games.
He subsequently joined non-League Spennymoor in 2019. After three seasons with them he rejoined Gateshead when he was signed by Williamson.
In this spell, Gateshead earned promotion from the National League North as champions. He retired in 2023 and became a member of Williamson’s coaching staff.
Ian Watson, assistant head coach at MK Dons was assistant manager at Gateshead, first taking up the role as part of Ben Clark’s coaching team.
He continued in that role following the appointment of Williamson as player manager.
Chris Bell was physiotherapist under Williamson at Gateshead and followed him to MK Dons.
Williamson is preparing for his first game in charge at Swindon on Saturday and also on the horizon on October 5 is a return to Colchester for the third time this season. MK Dons had played there twice, in League Two and the EFL Trophy.
