Callum Guy: The clear winners from Carlisle United's summer transfer window so far | OneFootball

The Blues have got a lot of their necessary business done early.

Even with more than a month left in the summer transfer window, this has been one of the most promising off-season periods for Carlisle United in a long time.

For the first time in many years, Carlisle will be operating with a competitive budget, and that's probably understating it slightly.

Deals along the lines of the ones they completed for League One experienced players like Charlie Wyke and Terell Thomas, buying Archie Davies, and those that are still to come are evidence of the marked step-change in finances United have had since last November when the Piatak family took over.

As is always the case with adding new faces and letting some go, there are going to be good and bad consequences. Two players in particular in the Blues' squad will be very happy with the work that Paul Simpson (the manager) and Gregg Abbott (the head of recruitment) have done over the summer.

Cameron Harper

The arrival of the former Inverness Caledonian Thistle left-back wasn't one that many could have predicted. It wasn't a position in which Carlisle were weak, especially compared to other places on the pitch. But the more you look at the Cameron Harper transfer, it looks to be a very shrewd move.

Simpson revealed that, due to issues at Caley Thistle, the Cumbrians were able to avoid paying a couple of hundred thousand pounds in compensation fees to the Scottish side.

The 23-year-old looks to have a very strong attacking game, which should be key for the promotion-chasing Blues. So United should be happy with what they did on their end to get him, but Harper should be equally pleased with what the club have done.

When he arrived, it was safe to assume that he'd been brought in to start. Why else would they sign a player like him when they already had Jack Armer, and Jack Robinson was going to return to fitness at some point? Now his position as the starting left-back has been rubber-stamped, following Carlisle's sale of Armer to Burton Albion.

After the deal was confirmed, Harper was given the former Blues left-back's number three shirt. There should be no doubting that he'll be happy with how things have gone this summer.

Callum Guy

One of the main what-ifs of the 2023/24 campaign for the Blues is one that centres around the club's midfield maestro: Callum Guy.

What ended up being a horrific season for the club, on the pitch, arguably one of the worst in their history, may not have been quite so bad if he was there. The wheels started to really fall off when he suffered a serious ACL injury in early November, one that he has still not fully recovered from.

We'll never know how much he would have helped Carlisle in their survival battle if at all, but the one thing that is for sure is that the supporters will be happy to have him back.

Guy is with the squad on their current stay up in Scotland at St Andrew's, even though he isn't fit enough to be involved in any pre-season friendly games. He's expected to return to full fitness in October, as per the manager.

Two things that United have done over the summer should please the 27-year-old. One: Ethan Robson's arrival. Without the former MK Dons player being in the building, United might feel a bit light on numbers in the middle of the pitch, and they might have needed to rush Guy back.

Two: they haven't brought in any direct competition for their number eight (who is a holding midfielder). Robson's presence allows Simpson to use either Dylan McGeouch or Harrison Neal in that deeper role until Guy returns.

They have the finances to get someone who can naturally fill that position better than either of the two current options probably could, and they were linked with Elliott Watt before he joined Burton, but they haven't.

That spot in the team has been quite clearly left open for him for when he gets back to full fitness.

Now, Simpson may realise after the first few games that they are going to struggle with a Guy approximation, and be forced into buying one. Right now, though, that doesn't appear to be on the agenda. That place in the team that he vacated over seven months ago is still his.