Frozen in time, frozen in space, frozen to the sole of the Football League. It's been a long cold winter at Carlisle United already. They haven't played for more than a fortnight because of the hard times, allowing the gap between themselves and the other stragglers in Division Three to increase. They should be used to isolation given their geography and recent history, but crowds have been decimated and the sense of endless drift has made Brunton Park the most depressing ground in England this season. The stadium's Scratching Pen end was never as bleak.
And today they host Arsenal. Before you ask - not a chance.
Arsenal may have lost to the 92nd league club once before in the FA Cup, and not so long ago, but Wrexham, for all their problems, were never in the situation Carlisle United are in today. Players operating on month-to-month contracts, £10,000 spent on transfers over the past three seasons, just 1,962 fans to see the Southend United game, the state of disrepair and despair is total. It is the conclusion of one of the most ridiculous reigns by any ego-cum-chairman in English football's modern history.
It ended formally on Wednesday when the chairman in question, Michael Knighton (the man who nearly purchased Manchester United for £10 million), was bought out by a new Gibraltar-based consortium for the sum of £300,000. One of Arsenal's reserves, Sylvain Wiltord, cost 43 times that amount. Still, it represented a profit on the £75,000 paid by Knighton to acquire Carlisle in 1992 after his Old Trafford buy-out flopped. Where some other money went, such as the £2 million Derby County and Crystal Palace paid for Rory Delap and Matt Jansen, is less certain. But what is not in doubt is where the dream went that Knighton sold an eager Cumbrian public eight years ago.
"In 10 years Carlisle United will be in the Premiership and among the 10 wealthiest clubs in the country, competing in Europe in one of the best stadiums around," said Knighton on his arrival. A one-man fanfare, Knighton had: "Self-confidence to burn," said Alex Ferguson. Had a Carlisle ex-pat returned this week to see that Arsenal were the next visitors to Brunton Park, they could have thought the Knighton fantasy had been realised. Wrong, big time. Because Carlisle United never made it to the big time. They won promotion twice during the Knighton era, and they won the Auto Windscreens Shield, but there were two relegations and two last day escapes from Football League exile as well. There were also eight different managers, including David McCreery, Mervyn Day and, memorably, Knighton himself. Today the club stares once again at the Conference.
There is unanimity within the town that Knighton is to blame for the predicament. Totally. A couple of seasons ago Knighton clashed with the local fanzine editor outside Brunton Park and the general hostility in this wild west border town is undisguised. Knighton's children were said to be bullied at school and the spittle aimed at Knighton as he sat alone in the directors' box on the final day of the 199899 season was plentiful.
Knighton had the last laugh that day as on-loan goalkeeper Jimmy Glass scored a famous 95th-minute equaliser against Plymouth Argyle to preserve Carlisle's league status, but the fans did not forget that Glass was only at Brunton Park because Knighton had sold the club's only other 'keeper to Blackpool for £5,000. They saw the devil in the minutiae.
They were correct. And yet anyone who has ever spent time in Knighton's company would be begrudging if they did not recognise a certain charisma. Having had the benefit of this experience three years ago in "Foxy's" bar at the ground, it is even possible to say that Knighton possessed plausibility, too. (Having said that, Knighton's confession of an encounter with aliens on the M62 in the 1970s never left the memory).
But one thing Knighton said that day encapsulated his basic instinct about being chairman of a football club: "I want to see success on the field, but not at any price."
This is simply not a manifesto for success in such an unpredictable, short-term industry as professional football. Even at small clubs such as Carlisle consecutive defeats represent a crisis to the dedicated. At Brunton Park things were a lot worse. In September 1997, for example, after Knighton followed Day into the manager's chair, the club went on to lose five in a row. Four months later Knighton sold Delap and Jansen and the next month, without having replaced the two best players, Knighton officially left the United Kingdom for taxation purposes and took up residence on the Isle of Man. In May 1998, Carlisle were relegated after losing nine of the last 10 matches. Is it any wonder supporters were disaffected?
That '97-98 season would have convinced most of the negligence, and perhaps worse, of the Knighton regime. Yet, bold and brass-necked, Knighton was to later reveal a £1.4 million operating profit for the season and was to inform the fans that it was better to be solvent and non-league rather than in debt and in the league. "Look," he said, "85 per cent of clubs are in serious financial trouble yet fans still seem unable to understand that £1 million is a massive amount of money."
What the fans understood was the decline on the pitch and Knighton's obvious ploy to keep Carlisle profitable at all costs so that it could be sold on. The 130 acres of land between the stadium and the M6 motorway that the club own featured prominently in Knighton conversation. The fact that the Department of Trade and Industry banned him from being a director for five years last September could well have influenced the decision to sell.
Funnily enough, the new owners who arrived this week also mentioned the 130 acres. Fronted rather appropriately by the management consultancy Low & Co - David Low was behind Clydebank's aborted move to Dublin - the new consortium on Wednesday identified Carlisle United's twin strengths as "its ability to develop soccer talent", and "its real estate". Guess which interests them more?
When this theory was put to them, one of the consortium, Stephen Brown, replied: "I don't like the word `exploit'. It's not a nice word. I prefer `develop'. We will be looking to develop the land but for the benefit of Carlisle United."
It may not, however, be for the benefit of present manager Ian Atkins. Atkins, a 43-year-old Brummie, walked into this mess last summer having been the manager of Chester City. They were relegated from the league, thereby saving Carlisle. He knows that even victory over Arsenal will not guarantee him a job. He said he plans to ask Arsene Wenger for some work experience at Arsenal after the match.
The new owners say they want Manchester United in the next round to ensure they keep Atkins. Their flippancy was not appreciated. It cast another doubt over their motivation. For the 15,000 fans who bought their tickets in the space of four hours, it means another hanging question: whether this week is the beginning of the end, or just another bad beginning.
