Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson has announced that the club are close to signing a new goalkeeper, describing the delay as a “paperwork issue,” according to The News and Star.
The League One club have used Tomas Holy between the sticks since Reading loanee Jokull Andresson suffered a serious shoulder injury in their EFL Trophy clash against Nottingham Forest under 21s in October.
31-year-old Holy had been ever-present for the Cumbrians before Andresson joined in the summer transfer window. This included the victorious play-off final against Stockport County in the 2022-23 season which Carlisle won on penalties.
This leaves inexperienced 19-year-old Gabriel Breeze as the only alternative in goal for the Blues if anything were to happen to Holy, leading to the club targeting another shotstopper.
The unattached free-agent keeper has not yet been named, but he has been training with the club for the past few weeks. A deal is hoped to be reached very soon, whilst Simpson also announced they are running the rule over another unnamed free agent but didn’t give any further details:
“There’s been a little bit of an issue with the paperwork, but we hope to get it resolved before the next game.
“We’ve had another player in to train with us, he’s only done one day.
“If I’m really honest he looks as if he’s going to take a while to get fully fit and up to match speed, so whether that’s too much of a gamble or a wait (we’ll have to see).
“We’re continuing to look, we’re going to keep working. If I’m going to be really honest, the chances are we’re going to have to wait until January for reinforcements to come in.
“But we’re already starting to try and do that. Hopefully we’ll be able to add players to the group who are going to give us a fighting chance of achieving what we want this season.”
The Cumbrians have already dived into the free agent market recently when they plucked ex-Grimsby Town defender Joshua Emmanuel, who has already made two appearances in their League One clashes with Reading and Charlton Athletic.
Simpson’s side currently sit 22nd in League One and suffered a humiliating 5-1 defeat against crisis-club Reading on Tuesday night. However, there is some positivity around the club despite recent results following the recent takeover by the American-based Piatek family.
Writer’s View
Carlisle are well within their rights to look for a new goalkeeper given the injury sustained by Andresson. Holy is more than capable of filling in for the time being but if he was to suffer and injury, Simpson would be forced to use the inexperienced Gabe Breeze between the sticks.
Could it be that they are looking at the likes of Jed Steer, Joe Lewis or maybe even Matt Macey who are all free agents at this time?
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