Carlisle United: Piataks takeover justified by developments involving Everton and Burnley players: View | OneFootball

Recent news around Jarrad Branthwaite and James Trafford has proved Carlisle United's new American owners right.

The new custodians of the Cumbrian side, as all new owners do, brought a lot of optimism about what was to come in the future for the club, both in the short-term and long-term. The short-term plan hasn't gone so well. Relegation back to League Two after just one season in the third tier is set to be confirmed in the next few weeks, but it's felt like an inevitability for much longer than that.

Even with the horrid on-the-field performances that have been produced by this Carlisle squad, there are plenty of positives to take from the 2023/24 campaign. According to Tom Piatak II, via the News & Star, the club are set to confirm the location of where they are going to build the club's new state-of-the-art training facility, and that the family are going to provide most of the funding for the project.

This new hub for the players in the first team and the academy should revolutionise the club, and the recent England call-ups for former academy products Branthwaite and Trafford prove that their academy-based reasoning for choosing Carlisle was the right one.

England call-ups for Branthwaite and Trafford prove Piatak's vision for Carlisle right

United are in a rare position in the football league, geographically. There isn't a team in the top four leagues in England that are within an hour-and-a-half drive of the Blues. By basically being the only club in Cumbria, they should have free rein over signing talent in the area, but the offering of better facilities elsewhere can often lure local players away from the club. This admission of a lack of proper facilities for these up-and-coming players was something that Tom Piatak spoke about soon after taking over.

Speaking to The Athletic, he said: "Long term, we have a great catchment area but we don’t have the training facilities to maximise that. We’re trying to work with businesses and the city council and developers to find 20 to 25 acres and develop a first-class training facility. That’s going to take more time, but it’s a huge priority."

Carlisle have almost no competition near them for prospects, and the only thing stopping them from hoovering it all up was the facilities available to players. Now, with the plans that are set to be announced soon, that hurdle will no longer be a problem.

The two Cumbrians being called-up to the men's team by Gareth Southgate also show that there is elite talent within the club's catchment area. Part of the vision was to become this producer of top northern talent. The call-ups show it is possible, and prove the Piataks right about the potential in the area, and the new training hub, alongside all the other improvements that are going on around the club, make it probable.

Carlisle's new training facility will pay for itself

The club's accounts for the 2022/23 promotion season were recently released, and they revealed that, since the 30th June 2023, the club have earned over £1 million from player sales and add-ons. The majority of this money will have come from the sale of Owen Moxon by the Blues in January (Cumbrian), Manchester City selling Trafford (Cumbrian) to Burnley in the summer window, and Manchester United selling former youth team member Dean Henderson (also Cumbrian) to Crystal Palace.

The Blues could also be set to receive a big fee this summer if Branthwaite gets sold by Everton for big money.

If the Blues can start producing these Premier League-level players at an even faster rate, then the money that the club will earn from this will cover the cost of this new project in no time.