Last updated 12:24, Tuesday, 24 June 2008

He arrives this time not on a galloping charger, swinging his sword at the neck of an über-villain. This summer, they won’t be lining the streets a dozen deep to greet the coming of the emerald revolution.

John Courtenay

What John Courtenay can expect this time, if he succeeds in becoming Carlisle United’s owner again, is a short and cheerful welcome, and then a great deal of public scrutiny on his motives, methods and means for keeping the Cumbrians on their recent trajectory.

And this, I contend, is precisely how it should be.

No Blues supporter needs a detailed history lesson on the Irishman’s previous Brunton Park regime, but it’s advisable to flick back six years to appreciate how differently the land now lies – and why our response to the prospective new owner must this time be more measured and qualified than before.

In 2002, Courtenay displayed the stamina and persistence to prise Michael Knighton from United, a club which the hated former chairman had allowed to enter an advanced state of financial decay and emotional collapse.

For this monumental act, Courtenay received – and, quite properly, still retains – a considerable amount of goodwill. The man who slayed Knighton: how many Cumbrians would love to wear those stunning words?

Courtenay’s arrival brought colour, money and a certain rough-edged wit to an increasingly bereft and monochrome landscape. More importantly, it allowed United supporters to believe their club had a future which just might be plausible: something which could no longer be said of Knighton and his rotting dreams.

It meant the man’s stock was immeasurably high throughout all he did at Brunton Park. The problem with this is that adulation can be an enemy of analysis. Questionable decisions can be washed away by a flood of gratitude – as they were when Courtenay persisted with Roddy Collins as manager long after the football prepared by his countryman had been declared bankrupt on every visible level.

It was my belief then that Collins’ recruitment of expensive and often indisciplined players was indulged by swathes of the United support – understandably, to a degree – simply because the policy bore the Courtenay stamp.

The result was that Carlisle became an increasingly chaotic collective, staggering between controversies, defeats, the odd fig-leaf victory and a brush with various constabularies too many.

Often, this would simply be described as the Courtenay “rollercoaster” – a word chosen by the man himself – yet it was a ride which became too nauseating, too quickly.

To his credit, he appeared to acknowledge this, albeit belatedly. If Collins’ failings were neon-bright long before the guillotine fell in August 2003, at least Courtenay saw in Paul Simpson the elements of a proper football man who, given time and responsibility, might be able to sweep away the mess that had been left behind.

Certainly, United’s recent revival can be traced to the day at Boston United that year when Collins gazed at another Carlisle defeat from behind what looked like a cage, after having been sent from the touchline by the referee, and Courtenay finally decided to go for the humane kill.

DRINK all this in and you’ll see a whopping difference in the picture which now confronts Courtenay as he walks jauntily back into town.

There is no trail of destruction to assess, no bad guy to thwart, no ailing football club to bring back to life.

United, thanks to Fred Story’s four-year regime, are in decent and progressive nick. The team, despite last year’s play-off failure and this week’s sale of Keiren Westwood, is not a massive problem area. The managerial team of John Ward and Greg Abbott plainly does not deserve to be mentioned in the same paragraph as Collins and all that he brought. Most significantly, there is no financial vortex into which the club is on the brink of falling.

What the Blues need this summer is not a saviour, but a regime with the intelligence and acumen to nudge them even higher; to pick up from last season’s promising efforts and press on. No chaos – just control, stability, some creative thinking and a dash of ambition.

We got a bit of that, but by no means all, from Courtenay last time. If United is destined for his hands again, the hope is that his most obvious mistakes remain locked in the past. Along with ours.

JColman@cngroup.co.uk