McCalmont to be moved on? Carlisle United must sort these 3 issues before August 30th | OneFootball

There are still a few things that need to be dealt with ahead of the summer window closing.

For the first time in quite a long time, the feeling around Carlisle United is almost entirely positive.

There was such a mix of emotions for Blues fans last season. The takeover of the club by the Piatak family gave people such hope about what was to come for Carlisle in the long-term. But, short-term, on the pitch specifically, things were falling apart.

Now that the 2023/24 season is behind United, the sad element of last season is gone. The owners are doing brilliant work off the pitch, investing £8.5 million into making Carlisle's facilities better.

There have also been five signings made. With a focus on stopping the goals going, three defenders and a goalkeeper made up the first lot of signings, and then midfielder Ethan Robson completed the current batch when he was announced on Wednesday.

The Blues are aiming as high as they can next season: promotion. However, everything is not quite in place that would make achieving this as easy as possible. These are three things that the club should look to tackle before the end of the summer.

Paul Simpson has been very open about the positions that he feels need to be filled in his squad.

The United boss said, just prior to the announcement of Robson, that the area that they are going to look at next is in the forward positions, as per the News & Star, and then hinted at the pursuit of a right-back, based off the squad number two still being vacant.

Simpson also said that attempts have already been made to sign some very good attacking players, but that they'd had no luck so far, before then telling the club's media team that they'd made offers to said forwards, but some had turned them down in favour of teams that are in a better location for them, despite a better monetary offer coming from the Blues.

The work continues though, and it must. Carlisle's current true striker options are Luke Armstrong and Georgie Kelly.

They vary a bit from one another, but their main attributes are quite similar.

United lacked a point of difference up front for much of last season, primarily in the speed department. Terry Ablade brought that for a bit before his injury, but he only made a dozen league appearances.

The first thing has to be simply having more options up front. Then the second layer of their striker search should focus on different profiles. That could mean branching out and getting wide forwards too, although Simpson doesn't often play wingers in his preferred system.

Creativity in midfield

Ex-MK Dons midfielder Robson joining the club should certainly bring more balance to Carlisle's midfield. He's left-footed and, from what the manager has said about him, he sees him as being someone that can be a useful outlet in attack.

His numbers over the past few seasons wouldn't necessarily suggest that he would be a main option for creativity in the middle of the park, so there's definitely still space for the Blues to add another creative midfielder.

Carlisle were unable to play their way up the pitch too many times last season, resorting to long balls up to Armstrong and Kelly, or whoever was partnering the former Harrogate Town forward for the second half of the campaign.

The return of players like Callum Guy will help this too, but a true chance creator in the middle of the pitch will make the lives of the two forwards much easier.

Alfie McCalmont's future

There's nothing that has come out from the club or any news outlets to suggest that United are specifically looking to move players on.

Simpson did state, after their retained/released list was announced, that a few players had been told that they could leave if they could find new clubs.

Again, Alfie McCalmont was not named as being one of those players - Simpson gave no indication as to any of the unwanted players' identities - but his lack of game time and suspected off-the-pitch antics that led to him being dropped for three games at the end of last term suggest that he may not be part of Simpson's plans going forward.

Former Leeds midfielder McCalmont wasn't a regular starter at Brunton Park last season by any stretch of the imagination, and that is why he may be moved on this summer despite the drop in division - a four-cap Northern Ireland international he may be but he is certainly not irreplaceable.