Carlisle United must take decisive action ahead of January after failed MK Dons move | OneFootball

The Blues are yet to make a key appointment that they set out to do over seven weeks ago.

It's been close to two months since Carlisle United set out on their mission to appoint a head coach and a sporting director in the wake of sacking Paul Simpson - half of that has been achieved.

After a few games with Steven Rudd, Mark Birch and Jamie Devitt in charge of the first-team on an interim basis, Carlisle confirmed that the successor to Simpson would be MK Dons' boss Mike Williamson.

The Blues reportedly paid their League Two rivals £200,000 in order to bring the former Newcastle United defender back to the north of the country, where he started his managerial career with Gateshead before being poached by Milton Keynes in the early stages of last season.

While Williamson hasn't been able to have the same quick winning effect on United as he did on his former team in the previous campaign, there are certainly signs of better play developing. This should continue to improve as more and more players return from injury.

But Carlisle are still without their Sporting Director. They've certainly made an effort to try and get one, but there have been some bumps along the way.

Carlisle United's failed attempts to appoint a Sporting Director

Football Insider reported that Carlisle were looking to bring another key figure from Milton Keynes up to Brunton Park. As well as Williamson, MK's Sporting Director Liam Sweeting was also being targeted.

However, just a day later, the same outlet stated that Sweeting had agreed a new deal with his current club and, therefore, wouldn't be following in the footsteps of Williamson.

The club were "fuming" with Sweeting for turning down the opportunity as they looked to complete this double MK swoop, according to The Sun's Alan Nixon.

After that latest report from Nixon, the noise surrounding United's pursuit of a Sporting Director quietened down.

Nigel Clibbens, the club's chief executive, later confirmed in an interview with CUTV that Carlisle had put the matter "on the backburner," for several weeks, but were going to resume their hunt once the Blues' American owners, the Piatak family, were back in the country - AKA now.

He further confirmed that an unnamed candidate had initially accepted an offer to join the club, and handed their notice in to their current club, but then changed their mind four days later.

The disappointment on the Sporting Director front, who they initially set out to bring in before a head coach was appointed, wasn't going to change the club's feelings about getting Williamson, but it "threw a spanner in the works." In fact, Clibbens added that new candidates have come forward since the announcement of the head coach.

Carlisle need to get on with Sporting Director search

The Piataks haven't been able to get too much from their current visit to the UK. Sure, they watched their Jacksonville Jaguars win at Wembley, but they also had to endure a battering from AFC Wimbledon at the Cherry Red Records Stadium and a frustrating home draw against Carlisle's bogey team: Harrogate Town.

The plan is to get on with finding a Sporting Director while they're on this side of the pond, and it's certainly a decision that ideally needs to come sooner rather than later.

We are getting closer to the next transfer window in January. It's going to, once again, be a potentially pivotal month for the club as they look to lift themselves higher up the table.

They will find it much harder to be successful in said window if they don't have someone in place to drive the off-the-field push. Recruitment has already started, with free agent Tyler Burey becoming the first signing of the Williamson era at Brunton Park.

Plans for January will be at least partially laid out already. They need that figurehead to be there, though, to make sure that everyone's visions are aligned, so that Carlisle can be more effective in the upcoming winter window than they were in the last one.