Culture, where did it all go wrong? | Blue Army Blog | A Carlisle United Blog

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I haven't posted in quite a while, but I have been following the team from the shadows as we approach our all-but-confirmed relegation.

Like many, I'm searching for the answers to why we find ourselves in the predicament we are in, considering the recent reporting of our alleged budget, the largest in League Two.

After the defect to Doncaster and seeing the photo online of the team bus receiving a delivery of Domino's Pizza, it got me thinking about culture. Who is making the decision that having a takeaway pizza after the game is good recovery for elite athletes? I would have thought Mark Hughes would be someone who believes in a good culture? Maybe he's tapped out already and can't be arsed? I have a friend who is an amateur athlete, competing at masters national level, and they were shocked at what they saw. It's embarrassing that a person who works full time and does athletics as a hobby is more disciplined and considers their diet and what they eat more than a professional football club. If Domino's Pizza was good for recovery, we'd see Pogacar and Vingegaard tucking into a Texas BBQ after ascending Alpe d'huez in the Tour de France.

What is organisational culture? Organisational culture is the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, systems, and rules that outline and influence employee behaviour within an organization. The culture reflects how employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders experience the organisation and its brand.

Culture is set from the top down. I'd guess most people have been in a job where your boss does something and gets away with it, and you think, well if they do that, why shouldn't I?

It works both ways, where good behaviours are set by management and that filters down through the workforce.

It's fair to say that our organisational culture at the moment is probably at the bottom of the parameters (just like our league position), if it was measurable.

To work out how we have got here, I feel like we need to go back a few years to complete the full circle.

Pre Piatak and Simpson we were a League Two club with a low budget for the division. The culture set by those at the top, whether the board, CEO, director of football or manager / head coach was that we generally were performing above our means, and the culture reflected that we were an underdog.

This certainly has had an influence to where we find ourselves now. The organisation was engrained with being run on a budget, trying to perform above it means, then all of a sudden overnight, we were loaded, and the culture needed to change.

Rather than throwing the financial kitchen sink at it, and going from one extreme to the other. It might have been beneficial for the new owners to make a more gradual investment to the football department over time so that the culture engrained in the organisation could follow suit. It would have also helped us as well to not have our pants pulled down by clubs and agents.

Before the take takeover, Simmo had actually created a really good culture in the dressing room, which had its part to play in the promotion.

It was the summer which followed where mistakes were made and personalities who, from the outside looking in, set cultural landmarks and left the club without being replaced. Morgan Feeney, Jamie Devitt and Paul Gerrard come to mind.

There were warnings that the culture was changing. Holy abruptly dropped for Andresson, Mellish publicly castigated for a throw-in mistake, the employment of Jake Simpson, which could be viewed as a job for the boys.

It went on that season and got worse. Huntington, the dressing room captain mysteriously omitted from the squad. The use of over 30 players making it become acceptable for them to take a wage and be comfortable sitting in the stand on a Saturday afternoon.

The acceptance and support that our January signings were good.

The list goes on.

The cultural rot was set and we finished bottom of League One.

It was at this point that the owners (or whoever was advising them from a football view point at this stage, if anyone?) should have realised a cultural reset was required. Some of the supporters in truth paid their part in Simmo being kept on, with blind faith that he would turn it around, despite how shite we were at the back end of that League One campaign. There was definitely some kind of cultural divide between the supporters, the ones who couldn't bring themselves to sack a legend and those who thought he should be moved on based on results. There were rumours that Simmo was offered a role upstairs, but he declined. How true this is I don't know.

At this point, it might have actually worked bringing in a Mike Williamson type and a Sporting Director for a cultural reset.

I seem to recall at some point of last summer some mixed messaging from Simmo and TP about budgets, with Simmo playing down the budget (probably because he knew agents and clubs would try and pull our pants down). What this has to do with culture, I don't know but I've written it now so will just leave it in.

At the point of sacking Simmo, this is where the new owners tried to influence the culture. Now they want to change the playing style, which takes an almighty reset on the culture of the football club, and requires a football person to oversee this gradually. Rather than change the playing style, they should have tried to reset the culture of losing to winning, in whatever style would have been most effective (see football advisors again).

So we end up with Mike Williamson appointed without a Sporting Director (more on that another time), with the owners pushing a positive attitude towards gaining promotion.

There was no real new manager bounce and we progressively became worse, but the culture was that it was acceptable because they believed he would turn it around. There was a new data culture trying to be implemented into the football club. As a fan, I love data and like to analyse it, however, even I know that the only stat that matters in a relegation battle is point accumulation.

When the cultural message from the top is about 'front foot attacking football', rather than winning and getting points, it sends the wrong message. Mike Williamson famously quoting box entries as a positive. Yeah maybe mention it in your Monday morning meeting with the other coaches, Mike, but not to the media after getting beat for the umpteenth time.

It was all positive, positive, positive from the club, then the fans had enough with you're getting sacked in the morning chats against Morecambe. You know it's over at this point. But, once again it's the positive message which is pushed out and we move into January signing players for Mike Williamson ball.

Bear in mind in January we sold Mellish and Neal. For all their technical shortcomings, you can tell that they were probably two of the most culturally demanding players we had left in the dressing room.

So here we are, top-earning players on long contracts who are staring relegation in the face. The culture of them being 'comfortable' means that they think they can give it back to the fans when the fans give them some home truths (someone has to, right?). Going through the motions in training, shit diet, few beers on a Friday, can't wait to get off after a match. You get the gist.

Culture, culture, culture.

I feel a bit for Rob Clarkson. We're in an unprecedented situation. We need to change years of bad habits. I just don't know if he demands enough respect in the building so he can go about making the change.

If someone can give me some reasoning why Clibbens should stay, please let me know. We're bottom of League Two and he's the CEO. His actions will influence the culture within the organisation.

We're at the stage of another cultural reset this summer, but this time looking likely from the depths of non-league, and with players on long-term contracts.

It's going to be a very costly exercise for the owners.

Best to burn it down and start again in my opinion.

What's the worst that can happen?

Up The Blues.