Steven Pressley has been speaking publicly for the first time since his dismissal by Carlisle United and revealed he had no idea the axe was coming.
In an interview with BBC Scotland reported by the News and Star, Pressley said that two weeks before his sacking, he received ‘100 per cent’ backing from the club.
The forty-six-year-old collected his marching orders in the wake of an EFL Trophy defeat by Morecambe, which actually came after a decent unbeaten run of three games.
However, Pressley paid the price for poor results, which were, on the whole, extremely disappointing in his ten-month tenure. He departed Brunton Park with the club in nineteenth place in League Two, a poor start to the campaign that followed a collapse in form during the second half of last season. When Carlisle appointed Pressley in January, they were on the fringes of the automatic promotion places but finished eleventh.
Despite his troubled spell, Pressley said he enjoyed his time in Cumbria and was adamant that given time, he could have built something special at the club. He also felt that working under severe budgetary constraints didn’t help his cause, revealing he had only a bottom five budget to work with when rebuilding the squad in the summer.
The former Scotland international also spoke of the need for present-day managers to possess a thick skin to cope with supporter criticism and abuse but said he was still ‘hugely driven’ to get back in the game and prove himself in his next job.
Our View
Pressley surely had an inkling his time at Carlisle was coming to an end, everybody else did.
He is probably right about Carlisle’s budget, but good managers get the most out of their resources, and Pressley clearly struggled in this respect.
He also spoke in the interview about the challenges of dealing with the mentality of modern players and came across as a dinosaur when he did.
We feel he will now struggle to get a decent job in the EFL, especially as the main man.
