Carlisle United should push to sign Southend United high-flyer | OneFootball

A right-sided wing-back will almost certainly be on the Blues' new year transfer agenda.

Carlisle United are gearing up for the January transfer window, one that should see a decent amount of activity.

Head coach Mike Williamson has openly said that the club are in talks with Tyley Burey and Kadeem Harris, whose contracts with the club expire in the first month of 2025, about extending their stays at Brunton Park. Left-back Ben Williams is also set to leave the Blues, after signing a deal at the start of the season which runs until January.

If Carlisle lose both Burey and Williams, their wide defensive options will be quite depleted.

Summer signing Archie Davies, who was projected to be the club's first choice right wing-back for this season, is expected to miss the majority, if not all, of the remainder of the campaign after undergoing shoulder surgery.

The former Millwall man has stepped in to take his place, but Burey isn't a natural player of this position - he's more suited to a place further up the pitch.

So it seems logical that the Blues would go for a right wing-back in the summer, and there's one in the National League that should suit Williamson's system very well.

Gus Scott-Morriss - Southend United's star wing-back that should be on Carlisle's radar

If you look at the head coach's success with MK Dons, or even his current short spell in Cumbria, he likes to use very attacking players at wing-back. He signed Aaron Nemane - a natural right-winger - to play this role for Milton Keynes.

Nemane is much better at the offensive side of football than he is at the defensive side, but, with three central defenders behind him, he could afford to be more adventurous and bold going forward. That's the type of player Carlisle could well go for in January, and Gus Scott-Morriss would fit that ticket almost perfectly.

The Southend United man has scored nine times in the league (more than a third of the team's total goals in the current league campaign) already this season, plus one assist.

The majority of those goals did come in the first month or so, with net-finding efforts by the 27-year-old drying up a bit of late, but this sort of tally is no fluke for Scott-Morriss. He registered eight goals and four assists last term.

As much as the scoring tally does jump off the stat sheet at you, his delivery from wide areas should also be interesting to Williamson, sporting director Rob Clarkson and the rest of the recruitment team. Scott-Morriss has found a teammate 26% of the crosses he has attempted this season, at a rate of 1.5 per game.

Those numbers are very similar to those of Cameron Harper and Jordan Jones; two strong deliverers of the ball.

There is a caveat, though, as there always is with lower league players. Scott-Morriss has made six errors that have led to shots in 20 National League appearances. That will be a concern for the Blues, even though his main responsibility won't be to protect his own goal.

The National League is a potential gold mine for the Blues

Now that Williamson - who was at the head of non-league Gateshead for a number of years - is in charge of the Carlisle first-team, even though he is just the head coach and not the manager, it would be no surprise if a higher number of non-league recruits came through the doors at Brunton Park than usual.

There used to be a bit of snobbery from EFL sides about buying from the tiers below League Two; the players from there were just seen as less than. And sure, there was some validity to it, but the last couple of seasons should have proved one thing about the EFL and the National League: the gap has closed tremendously.

Stockport County and Wrexham could end up as Championship clubs next season if things go well for them. We've seen a host of players get snapped up from the non-leagues and become really strong options for EFL clubs.

There is talent to be found in the National League. Williamson's presence at Carlisle should only improve the chances of the Blues going after them.