Carlisle United director of football David Holdsworth is hoping the good relationship built with Leeds United due to the transfer of Liam McCarron could open the door to Whites players heading to Brunton Park on loan if the League Two side want them.
The Whites snapped up the 18-year-old winger from the League Two side for an undisclosed fee on Monday, with McCarron having signed a three-year deal.
The director of football is clear that Carlisle did not want to lose McCarron, but feels it was impossible to stand in the winger's way when a big club like Leeds started to show interest.
Holdsworth also took time to reveal that his club offered an improved deal to McCarron, but were told that the youngster wanted to take up the opportunity to join Leeds.
The Carlisle deal-maker is hoping for a positive though as he believes there is now a good relationship between both clubs, meaning loan stars may be able to make their way to Cumbria if the club target them.
“This is one of those situations where a big club has identified the potential of one of our young players and has subsequently followed that up", Holdsworth told his club's official website.
“There’s nothing much you can do when a club really does start to ramp up their intentions to actually sign the player, whatever age he is, other than let him know that he’s wanted by the club he’s already with and that you see him as part of the future here at Carlisle United.
“We did that to the point where, fairly early in this process, we offered a vastly improved new three-year deal with the option of a fourth year tagged on to keep Liam at Brunton Park.
“Speaking to the young man he made it clear that his intentions were to take up this opportunity and, at that point, negotiations continued between myself, the board and Leeds United to see if we could bring it to a conclusion", he stressed.
“I have to say that I’ve built up a good working relationship with Leeds throughout this process and it could prove to be a good fit for us going forward should we want to consider any of their players for loan spells with us.”
McCarron is scheduled to initially join Carlos Corberan’s Under-23 side at Leeds as he continues his development, and will eventually look to make it to the first team in the future.
