Sweeting 'played no part' in Williamson's move to Carlisle United

Carlisle United owner Tom Piatak has insisted his pursuit of MK Dons sporting director Liam Sweeting has no influence on the Cumbrians’ appointment of Mike Williamson as head coach.

The American had been keen on bringing the pair to Brunton Park in September, but while he landed the management staff, reports claim Sweeting turned down the move at the 11th hour.

But while the duo were both set to join from Stadium MK, Piatak claimed any pursuit of Williamson was not brought about as a result of luring Sweeting to Brunton Park, but the head coach had already been top of their wishlist after sacking Paul Simpson.

Speaking at a Carlisle United fans forum on Wednesday, and ahead of MK Dons’ trip to take on their former head coach on Saturday, Piatak said: “Liam Sweeting had absolutely no influence of hiring Mike Williamson. Those are just rumours out there.

“I can categorically say, Liam Sweeting had no influence over the hiring of Mike Williamson here at Carlisle United Football Club. End of story. Stop that rumour.

“Interestingly, everybody who we spoke to – and we spoke to a lot of people, a lot of interviews, over a number of days, in Manchester – throughout the process Mike’s name was coming up all the time.

“Sporting directors look at metrics, fits, alignment with what we’re trying to do. They all said, based on what you want to do at Carlisle United, this is the guy who fits your bill.

“We got who we thought was our sporting director, he accepted the offer, he came to Carlisle, we met him, talked about this for a number of days, we agreed terms of a deal and thought we had our man. But then he changed his mind, simple as that.

“In terms of getting Mike from MK Dons, that person never had any contact with MK Dons about Mike. That was all by me, direct to their new CEO (Neil Hart).

“They had new owners in, we knew they were making new structural changes, hiring a new CEO. His first job was taking calls from me about their sporting director, and the next day he was taking calls about their head coach.”

He added that with the threat of losing both Williamson and Sweeting in one fell swoop, Hart offered Sweeting a new deal to remain at Stadium MK.

Piatak continued: “It’s no surprise that faced with losing (both), and being in the job for two days, their CEO did everything he could with their ownership to avoid that happening, and sorted a deal for Liam which then he couldn’t refuse.

“No disrespect to any of that. It happens in football, it hasn’t happened to me before but you’ve got to deal with it.”