Weekly Briefing
July 29, 2019
Dear <<First Name>>
Membership Year End - July 31
The time is fast approaching when memberships have to be renewed. Our membership year end falls on July 31. There is no change to the membership fee which remains at £10 for adults and families, and £5 for Under 18s and OAPs. Valuable benefits come with membership - a £1 share in CUOSC which is the second largest shareholder in CUFC Holdings and a vote at our annual general meeting (see below), plus club shop discount and priority for cup ties and other big games in the coming season.
To renew via PayPal or download the membership form, please visit http://www.cuosc.org.uk/howdoijoin.shtml
Thanks to all those who have renewed so far. The response has been good and we are ahead of last year's schedule. Your support is so important to us, and allows us to maintain our sponsorship of the club. Those of you who have taken out standing orders will see your membership automatically renew on July 31. If there is any problem with taking your payment, we will advise individually.
If you want to know if your membership needs to be renewed please reply to this email and we will advise.
Important: Your current membership card is designed to be permanent. We will not supply a new membership card when you renew. Please keep your membership card in a safe place. We will soon start to charge a fee to replace any cards that have been thrown away.
CUOSC Surgery
Our regular supporter surgeries return this Saturday, August 3, between 1.30 and 2.30pm before the opening league fixture against Crawley Town.
The surgery takes place in the Study Centre next to the Club Shop.
Come along and meet your supporter representatives or renew your membership.
Fans' Forum - August 1
Manager Steven Pressley, director of football David Holdsworth, chief executive Nigel Clibbens and other football staff will all attend this event, to be held in The Sunset Suite. The event is being hosted by the CUSG of which CUOSC is a member. For more information and to book your place, please click link below:
https://www.carlisleunited.co.uk/news/2019/july/fans-forum-meet-the-manager-his-staff-and-nigel-clibbens-and-david-holdsworth/
Re-naming of bars at Brunton Park - have your say!
Carlisle United Supporters Groups (CUSG) are asking fans to nominate CUFC legends to re-name bars after. A short-list was drawn up using social media to get feedback. Please click on the link below to nominate your favourites for this honour:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QFBPHWJ
Close season update
The announcement from the EFL this week that Bury have had their CVA approved and have been given provisional go-ahead to start their season in the third tier of the EFL after their controversial promotion campaign, with a 12-point penalty imposed, can hardly be seen as positive news for lower league football. They still have considerable hoops to jump through if they are even to kick-off the season, but the potential farce of a team of youth players and cobbled together free agents trying to play at League 1 level is entirely avoidable.
The Bury saga has been felt acutely up here in Cumbria due to one of our most popular players of recent times Nicky Adams, finding himself out of contract and unpaid after joining the Shakers from ourselves last summer.
Adams turned down what was believed to be a very good offer from us to sign for a club who couldn't ultimately pay his wages, or those of their other players. Yet they could kick off in League 1 this season while other clubs run on more responsible lines will once again do battle in League 2. The 12-point penalty cuts little ice in these circumstances. The EFL need to do more than that. Bury should kick off with no points but in League 2, not the division they bought their way into without having the cash to do it.
At Brunton Park the new focus on the Academy has already borne fruit with Liam McCarron moving to Leeds for an undisclosed fee of about £250k-£300k, with potential for sell-on clauses benefitting the club into the future. Josh Dixon, before his sad ACL injury, signed an improved deal that may one day see him join McCarron at a big club, but not before, hopefully, he has made headlines in a blue shirt and helped his local club to promotion. Other academy players, most notably Josh Galloway, son of former United midfielder Mick Galloway, have impressed during pre-season, hinting at a professional contract in the not-too-distant future. The average age of the squad has come down, as it needed to, and as the manager Steven Pressley wanted. The average age of most promoted sides has been lower than United teams of recent seasons. The move to a more youthful squad is partly driven by financial necessity of course, but a younger hungrier playing line-up is surely the way to go in this division. Key players such as Byron Webster, Nathaniel Knight-Percival, Adam Collin and Mike Jones maintain a backbone of experience that should, one hopes, hold the young squad together. Hallam Hope, reportedly pursued by Blackpool, appears to be staying at the Club after we rebuffed their interest. Pressley wants to play a high-tempo pressing style, with the emphasis on pace up front and the ability to break quickly. Pre-season has seen some good potential signs that this can work. Of course injuries and delays to the promised loan captures means the team could kick off against Crawley with three or four new names to accomodate but the basis of a decent starting XI is taking shape. Patience is the key here. Important players last year such as Anthony Gerrard and Jack Sowerby didn't sign until after the season started and the year before Clint Hill, one of Keith Curle's best ever signings, didn't arrive until late September. If you want to go a bit further back consider that Michael Bridges, a genuine CUFC legend who turned play-off contenders into champions, wasn't signed until October.
Squad so far for next season (players under contract):
Adam Collin
Louis Gray
Jack Iredale
Jon Mellish
Christie Elliott
Byron Webster
Nathaniel Knight-Percival
Keighran Kerr
Kelvin Etuhu
Mike Jones
Jack Bridge
Nathan Thomas (season long loan)
Harry McKirdy
Stefan Scougall
Hallam Hope
Josh Dixon
Jarrod Branthwaite
Pre-season friendlies:
Hibernian (h) 3-4
Penrith (a) 4-0
Chester (a) 0-0
Fleetwood (h) 1-3
Tranmere (h) 3-0
Ross County (a) 0-2
The Cumbrians will kick off the new campaign at home to Crawley Town on August 3. They follow this game with a visit to Swindon Town a week later with Salford City, newcomers to the EFL, visiting Brunton Park on August 24. Boxing Day sees a home game with Bradford City. Full fixtures can be found HERE.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES ON THE CUFC BOARDS
  To contact Jim Mitchell, please drop him an email via boardrep@cuosc.org.uk - you can raise any issue with him. Some things may not be relevant at board meeting level but Jim has regular contact with various people at the football club and your issue will be raised with the appropriate personnel, should it require an answer from the club. As an attendee at meetings of Carlisle United Supporters Groups he has the opportunity to raise concerns, queries and issues in that forum as well. You can also raise internal CUOSC issues with Jim. If Jim isn't available, we will pass on your query to his deputy, Billy Atkinson. Billy is also your representative on the board of CUFC Holdings
Next CUOSC Board Meeting - 31.07.19
Next CUSG Meeting - 12.08.19
Quiz Time
Mystery CUFC personality
Over the next few weeks we are running a new series of picture posers. Every personality featured has an association with Carlisle United, either as a player, coach or manager. However the photos show them many years before or after their time at Brunton Park. Can you identify them?
Answer next week.
First person to email through the correct answer gets a mention in next week's briefing!
Last week's answer : FRANK CLARKE (correctly answered first by Michael Driver)
Spot the Club
Identify the club from the team line-up and season :
Category: DIFFICULT
Season: 1944-45 (Wartime)
Line-up: Smith, Lever, Sherwood, Phillips, Stansfield, Lester, Gibson, Carless, Rees, Clarke, Moore
Last week's answer: WORKINGTON REDS (correctly answered first by Michael Driver)
Answers in next week's briefing
Introducing the Football Supporters' Association
http://www.fsf.org.uk/latest-news/view/the-football-supporters-association
Acknowledgements
Weekly Briefing editor: Alastair Woodcock
News & Star column: Malcolm Nugent
If you have any items you'd like to include in this briefing, please reply to this message.
Don't forget to let us know if your email address changes.
Contact CUOSC
Tel: 07999 73 73 90
Website and social media addresses below
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