Q&A: Paul Carden

We sat down with Warrington Town manager Paul Carden following confirmation of the club's first new signings for the 2026/27 season.

Carden discusses how the squad is shaping up, future recruitment plans and more.

Paul, you’ve brought in five new faces so far, how many more do you expect to bring in?

How many more we’ll sign will depend on a couple of things.

We’re still in talks with some players from last season and we’ve got some coming back from injuries, so we’ll see how they fare coming back for pre-season.

Obviously we need a goalkeeper. We need a right winger, I’ve spoken to a couple, we’ve had one come down to the club for a meeting, so it’s certainly been a busy few weeks.

There’s always one or two that maybe pop up during pre-season that don’t get the clubs that they’re looking for.

But I want to try and get as much as done as I can before we come back so that pre-season is settled, so that from day one we’ve got 90% of the squad done and dusted and we can get that connection within the squad nice and early, and do things as a squad.

I think the fans will like all the lads we’ve brought in. We’re bringing in good lads and good players. They’ve all got a good appetite as well, they want to come in and do well and kick on.

Is that a bit of a change of approach from previous, where maybe you’ve waited to see who became available, and maybe shows how the game has changed over the past few years?

We’re not going to have a pre-season flooded full of trialists like we have done previously because needs must.

We want to focus on what we’ve got, what we’ve signed and what we’re going to use going forward. I want to get a settled team done early.

In previous seasons and when I’ve been here in the past, it’s been a case of just adding a few players where you need. There’s always that turnover, but in the last couple of seasons there’s been a big turnover, so this season we don’t want to bring as many in we want to add quality to it, which is what I feel we’ve done, and enhance what we’ve got and what we hope to keep.

You never know what happens over the summer in terms of players. Some get offered jobs and they move, or they offered something stupid from somewhere else and then all of a sudden their head’s turned.

So if we can keep it settled and make it a familiar dressing room, not just for us but for the connection we need to build with the fans as well.

How important is building that connection?

We had a great average attendance last season and there was too much unfamiliarity with injuries and stuff, so I want to try and build that connection nice and early so that the fans can get a good view of what we’re going to look like in the season and that rapport can be built.

We need the atmosphere to be something that it hasn’t been for a couple of seasons, and that’s not just in the dressing room, that’s in the stands as well.

With the work that we’re doing, not just signing players but off the field and the developments at the ground, we’re in a good place and we’re moving forward in the right way.

After last season, how important is it to get off to a good start?

I think if you broke last season down, it was a really poor start, a decent mid-season period and a really poor finish.

The middle of the season probably coincided with us having our strongest squad available. The beginning and end probably coincided with us not being as strong as what we could have been.

That’s not hiding behind excuses, we were poor for those spells and it was a good job we had that mid-season period to be honest.

At times we showed we were capable when we had stronger availability of players. But we also showed that when you don’t have those players and that strength, then the league is unforgiving and teams smell blood, and we’ve got to flip that on its head this season and be that type of team.

The start’s always important. We’ve just got to be in the mix and be in and around and ready to strike.

You’ve got to look at the teams that were up there predominantly for most of the season. They were up there because they had a good squad, good players, good organisation and kept the majority of them fit. And that’s the biggest thing.