On Monday, news broke that a group of unnamed businesspeople headed by former players Chris Lumsdon and Steve Skinner had walked away from talks over an approach for Carlisle United.

Here, Chris Lumsdon explains the reasons behind the decision.

On Monday night our group took the decision to end our approach to Carlisle United.

We were told that one of the people on Edinburgh Woollen Mill's side of things would call us yesterday, having expressed that we just needed a couple of answers on things to progress our plan.

When that call was made we weren’t given the definitive yes or no on what we were asking, but we were told that it was unlikely we would get the answers any time soon.

So, we decided, instead of continuing to work away at it and pour our energies into it, keeping supporters wondering and hanging on for news – whether they liked the idea of what was happening or not – to walk away.

We have, though, said that if we are ever approached by the club and EWM in the future, we would still be happy to talk.

They know where we are. They have asked for help for a while in terms of support from businesses, and although we have not publicly named any of the business people in our group, I’m pretty sure senior people at the club know the calibre of some of them.

We feel confident that we have a hell of a lot to offer in terms of business nous, commercially and in terms of the direction of the club. We have people with us who have been involved successfully in football before, and people who know how to run businesses well.

Whatever was said in last week’s statement about operating through the right protocols, we walk away confident that we did what we were told and advised to do – by a director of the club, and those connected to Philip Day – when we first made our approach.

I still maintain there looks to have been some degree of crossed wires regarding who knew about that statement and who didn’t.

It’s a shame to have come to this point, but we wish Carlisle all the best with the current manager situation and hope they can go from strength to strength in the future.