Carlisle United: Failed Fulham transfer should offer stern warning for future deals - View | OneFootball

Carlisle United haven't shown themselves to be particularly adept in the loan market over recent seasons, and one standout case should serve as a warning for current and future loanees who come to the club.

A discussion topic on the most recent episode of the Carlisle Social podcast was the success that Carlisle have had recently with bringing in players on temporary moves.

The likes of JK Gordon and Dynel Simeu were mentioned as some of the best that the club have had over recent years.

Both players did well, in their own right, but they weren't the type who came in and immediately set themselves out as top talents, and had a profound, lengthy impact on the team.

You look at some of the loan players in League One this season and compare them to what United were able to sign, and it's chalk and cheese.

Alex Robertson and Marc Leonard are two of the standout players from this season, and have played for Portsmouth and Northampton Town. Even though they are both still young, they quickly established themselves in the starting XIs because of their quality. The same can't be said about Luke Plange, Jökull Andresson, or Terry Ablade.

Plange and Ablade came from Crystal Palace and Fulham, respectively; two clubs that United have frequented for loanees over recent seasons.

The well has pretty much gone dry with these two clubs, and available young talents, and moving away from these same old recruiting methods is something that club chairman Tom Piatak has spoken about as being a necessity this summer.

But there are more lessons to be learned than just not to go back to the same clubs over and over again in the search for players. There are cases in the past that players who will be joining the Blues on loan this season should look at and look to do the opposite of, and one of those cases is another former Cottager.

Sonny Hilton's failed Carlisle loan move

The attacking midfielder joined the club at the start of the 2022/23 season with a decent reputation behind him.

He was nominated for the Premier League 2 Player of the Year award in the prior season. Other nominees for the award included Liverpool's Conor Bradley, Manchester City, and now Sheffield United's, James McAtee, and Crystal Palace's Jesurun Rak-Sakyi.

McAtee ended up winning it, and the 22/23 winner also came from Man City. That man was Carlos Borges, who was sold to Ajax this summer for £17.3 million.

So there's quite a good pedigree that comes with this award, but the question with these young players is will they be able to translate under-21s performances into being able to play in the EFL, where the style is very different.

The answer for Hilton was no.

He only made seven league appearances for Carlisle, and was on the pitch for an average of 14 minutes per game, according to Sofascore. It should be no surprise, too, that he performed best in the Football League Trophy, against under-21 sides.

Now, the fact that he wasn't as effective as fans hoped he would be wasn't an issue that season. Carlisle have a strong, consistent midfield, and they weren't struggling to create, or score, chances, unlike this season.

He was eventually deemed surplus to requirements, and he was sent back to London at the start of the January transfer window.

Future Carlisle signings should look at Sonny Hilton as a warning

After he left Brunton Park, the now 23-year-old was released by Fulham at the end of the 22/23 campaign. At one point, he was nominated alongside some of the most exciting talents in the Premier League, and all of a sudden he found himself without a team.

Where did he land? Bootle FC. A team in the Northern Premier League West Division; AKA, four steps below the EFL in the footballing pyramid.

Because of one comment by Chris Lumsdon, all Carlisle loanees who don't do well will now be compared to Hilton, and rightfully so.

He is now the perfect example of how quickly you can go from being one of the big hitters in the under-21s of a big club to playing semi-professionally, and having very little chance of getting back into professional football.

It's not like he did anything wrong as a player at Carlisle which led to him being where he is now. But this case should be taken seriously by young players who are getting their first chance in the EFL.

You had better do your best to take it because there's no guarantee that another opportunity is going to come around the corner.