Teenage striker to fill Graham void

Jun 30 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

CARLISLE United are looking to teenage striker Gary Madine to fill the void left by top scorer Danny Graham, who is set to sign for Watford this week.

Although a fee is yet to be agreed for the out-of-contract Graham, he has snubbed interest from League One sides Leeds and Huddersfield – as well as Middlesbrough – to agree terms with the Hornets.

Carlisle have been braced for Graham’s exit since the striker snubbed their offer of a contract at the end of the season, and are hoping for a speedy resolution to top up Greg Abbott’s summer transfer fund.

Because Graham is under 24 the Cumbrians will be entitled to compensation – but they will hope to avoid the fee being decided by a Football League tribunal.

That can be a lengthy process and there are no guarantees that Carlisle will recoup anything like the £250,000 that Huddersfield offered for him during the January transfer window.

That money will be useful as Abbott looks to recruit another striker, but the Cumbrians have also earmarked a major role for Madine next term.

After snubbing Newcastle to sign a long-term deal with Carlisle the highly-rated forward played 25 games for the Cumbrians before joining Rochdale on loan in March.

He scored once and impressed in spells but Abbott is hoping to see the 18-year-old from Gateshead ‘step up’ and shoulder the burden of leading the line next year. The Carlisle manager may be forced to look for a new goalkeeper soon, however, with Colchester having opened up negotiations for Ben Williams.

It is a surprising development given Williams’ mixed form at the beginning of the season but – given that work has already begun to replace him – it is clearly interest that has been bubbling under the surface for a while.

“There has been an offer for Ben and he is now talking to Colchester to see if it is a move that he wants to make,” Abbott revealed. “It is a deal that does have a slight complication involved with it at the moment, but it’s a complication that is in our favour.

“We should have more details about it later this week.

“Obviously if he does agree to go then we will move to bring in a replacement, and work is already being done on that.

“We would want that one sorted out as quickly as possible, but we have to wait and see what happens with Ben and his talks with Colchester first.”

While they expect to lose two players this week, the club are close to finalising the transfer of Hartlepool winger Matty Robson.

“There has been a complication at Matty’s end but we think that might be getting resolved,” Abbott said.

“Negotiations were re-opened over the weekend and we are very hopeful that Matty will be joining us in time for pre-season training.”

The Cumbrians return this week with Abbott anticipating a huge improvement from his players on last season’s unsatisfactory efforts.

“The first day is a massive part of pre-season,” said the manager. “I will talk to them and messages will be put across.

“That message will say we are all together, we won’t let standards drop, we are not going to accept average.

“What I want is a team that, however well we play, gives everything they have got in terms of determination, effort, energy. It is vital the players know I am demanding these things from them and together we have got to make it work. If anybody doesn’t want to be a part of that, they won’t be at this football club.”