Wednesday 1 September 2010 15:14, UK
Carlisle boss Greg Abbott says the disappointment of losing Ian Harte has been tempered by the money made for team strengthening.
Harte, 33, signed a two-year deal with Reading after the club had an improved undisclosed offer accepted by Carlisle, who reluctantly agreed to the sale of one of their star players. Abbott said: "Reading came in for him on Monday and we initially turned their bid down. At the request of Reading, we are not going to disclose any of those details, but we then had to allow Ian to talk to them to see what they had to say." Abbott added: "At the same time as that, it then became my job to get out there and tie down a replacement. Fortunately we had a number of avenues already open and we were able to secure the signing of Lubomir Michalik from Leeds United within a matter of hours. "The other positive thing to come from it is that the board have told me that the money gained from this deal is there for us to reinvest, whether that is with a permanent signing in January or wages for specific loan deals. "The arrival of a replacement so quickly and the availability of extra funds has certainly helped to ease what was an initial feeling of real disappointment that we were about to lose one of our players."