Carlisle United's Owen Moxon call may cause short-term pain but it will pay off: View | OneFootball

Carlisle United are looking set to go back down to League Two after just one season in the third tier of English football. One January decision didn't help their chances, but it was the right call.

The Blues are going to have to complete a historic comeback if they are to avoid relegation from League One. With 14 games to play, they are the same number of points from safety, when you take into account their horrendous goal difference, and they have lost their last seven games.

Paul Simpson's Blues have achieved four wins all season, and they will need to more than double their tally in the W column before the end of the season if they want any chance of achieving a 20th place finish or higher. Simpson has admitted that he is feeling the pressure.

There have been things that have worked against them. A season-ending knee injury to Callum Guy certainly didn't help their chances, and their summer recruitment was hampered by a lack of available funds.

One transfer decision in the January window has really not helped their survival hopes, but it was a choice that needed to be made, and it will be one that will make more sense down the road.

Selling Owen Moxon hurt Carlisle's survival hopes, but it was the right thing to do

The midfielder gained legendary status during his year-and-a-half with Carlisle. He signed a two-year deal when he joined the club from Annan Athletic in the summer of 2022, having been released by the Blues as a 16-year-old, and he went on to be one of the driving forces in United's promotion winning campaign.

He wasn't able to adapt as well to League One football, and the worry about whether he would stay or go at the end of the season seemingly loomed large over the club, and the fans. Late in the January window, having rejected offers from the club, Moxon made the decision that he wasn't going to sign any contracts until the summer.

Just a few days later, a deal was agreed between Carlisle and Portsmouth to sell the 26-year-old to Pompey for an undisclosed fee. Even in what was, up until that point, a down year for him, he was still one of the best players in Carlisle's squad, in terms of ability. Losing someone of that calibre when you're in the midst of a relegation battle is always going to be a big blow. But it's one that they had to take.

Simpson and his team would have known that Moxon was probably going to end up somewhere other than his hometown by the time that the 2024/25 season rolled around. So why hang on to him and risk losing him for free when you could make money from him now?

Unless the midfielder became Clark Kent from February onwards, he alone wasn't going to be enough to save Carlisle from what was to come, and they were right to sell him whilst they had the chance to. It's a short-term pain for long-term gain move.

How Carlisle should spend the Owen Moxon money

The club did make one deadline day acquisition - they signed striker Georgie Kelly from Rotherham United, who likely won't feature for the Blues until the end of the season due to an injury. Some of the money generated from the sale of Moxon may have gone towards bringing in the Irishman, but there will be at least some of that income remaining, and it should all be put into the next transfer window.

The summer window is going to be huge for Carlisle. In fact, the start of the season in general is going to be massively important if they want to go straight back up to League One. If they start poorly and fall way behind the pace, then it might be hard for them to recover, and the same applies for the manager.

Getting their recruitment right in July and August is going to be crucial to how well they do next season. Carlisle felt the full effects of a lately put-together summer window this season, but now they don't have the excuse of lack of funding. Add the Moxon money on top of the new wealth that the Piataks have brought to the club, and there aren't many excuses for Simpson and Gregg Abbott to fall on if things go wrong.

That extra money from selling the 26-year-old could be the difference between getting their number one option and missing out. It hurt at the time, it hurts now, but it should be worth it in the end.