PAUL SIMPSON’S love affair with Carlisle goes back to when the club replaced Manchester United in the top flight.
The Cumbrians were promoted from the old second division in 1974 for the only time in their history while the Red Devils got relegated.
Carlisle spent one season rubbing shoulders with football royalty and an eight-year-old Simpson got inspired by his Brunton Park heroes.
The Cumbrians boss, now 57, told SunSport: “My dad first took me during the promotion-winning season of 1973-74. We had players such as John Gorman, Bill Green, Ray Train, Joe Laidlaw and later the likes of George McVitie.
“The team didn’t have any standout star players until Peter Beardsley joined in 1979 when he was starting out.
“It was at that moment you thought, ‘Wow, if I can just be like him’ — but we did well with a group of players that had a real togetherness.”
Although Simpson went on to have an illustrious playing career for Manchester City, Oxford, Derby, Wolves Blackpool and Rochdale, his heart has always been in Cumbria.
So it was apt he finished his playing career with the club before managing them.
And there was something poetic about Simpson returning to the club last year for a second spell in charge. During his first stint, he took the club from the National League to League One in back-to-back seasons before leaving to take charge of Preston.
This time around he saved the club from dropping back into non-league before winning promotion to League One … again in consecutive seasons.
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So does Simpson have unfinished business having left the club in the third tier last time around.
He said: “I don’t feel that way. Football is constantly changing and evolving. Players, coaches and managers all make decisions they believe are right for themselves and I made one to leave in 2006 because it was right for me and my family to do that.
“I love Carlisle United and people questioned that, thinking I was telling lies when I left. Back then I was at the start of my coaching managerial career. I’ve no regrets about doing it.
“It was the right thing to leave then and it was the right decision to return last year.
“I’m no longer chasing to be the best manager in the world, which you do as a young coach.
“My life is happy. I love living back in Carlisle. I’ve got a really good family here. My first granddaughter was born last year so we’re enjoying it.”
Simpson went on to boss Preston, Shrewsbury, Stockport, Northwich Victoria before working as an assistant at Derby and Newcastle under Steve McClaren.
He also managed England Under-20, where he won the World Cup in South Korea in 2020 before a short spell as assistant at Bristol City then his homecoming to Cumbria.
And Simpson questioned whether he should return to frontline club management after a decade out of it — having only had a short stint at Northwich in non-league after leaving Stockport.
He said: “I regret taking the Stockport job. I was lied to about what setup there was and how it was all going to be and that six months was the worst decision I made.
“I went into a club different to what it is now. It was in turmoil and there was back stabbing going on between the directors and stuff like that.
“I needed time away to go and try to educate myself and learn from other people so I went to Portugal and headed up an academy there. I came back and did some work for the Premier League and some media stuff. Then I got the chance to go to Derby with Steve McClaren, then to Newcastle and four years at the FA so I had a long time out of it.
“You get to a point where you think, ‘I can still be a club manager but I don’t know if I want it to take over my life again’ so getting the opportunity to come here was good.
“What I’ve discovered is I’m calmer and clearer about what I want. I’m also better at delegating because I was one of those fellas who used to do everything.
“I’ve realised you can’t do everything, you need to have good staff around you and that’s something that Steve McClaren taught me. We never spoke about it but what he did was get good people around him, he trusted them and that’s what I’ve learned to do as well.”
But with him every step of the way has been his wife and rock Jacqui, through his ups and downs in football and his fight against kidney cancer two years ago.
He said: “We’ve been married 35 years and lived in 27 different places so it’s crazy but she’s supported me along with our three boys.
“I remember when I was at Oxford and living there, I left home one Wednesday morning to have talks with Derby and never stepped foot in the house again. Jacqui sold it, moved us out and found our place in Derby. She’s brilliant.
“In a career like this, you’ve got to have someone alongside you who’s going to support you and Jac’s certainly done that job.”
Simpson is philosophical about his cancer scare — and never felt “lucky” to beat that awful disease.
He said: “Because I’m lucky to still be involved in football, I don’t wake up thinking ‘You’re really lucky now because you’ve survived cancer.’
“From the minute I was told I had it, the surgeon was brilliant, and he was so positive that at no point did I think I was going to be a negative story.
“I convinced myself this was going to be a good story because unfortunately you hear bad ones. Everybody wants to tell you about horrible stories and you rarely hear the good ones.
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“People would say ‘I’m really sorry’ and I was like ‘No, it’s fine. This is going to be a good story. This is fine, I’m going to be OK.’
“I had that philosophy on it, so it hasn’t changed my view on life. I know I’m lucky to still be involved in football from starting in 1982 at Man City to still being here now in 2023. I crack on and get on with it.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
