Carlisle United: Changing fortunes underlined by Portsmouth and Burton Albion transfers - View | OneFootball

The Blues are in as good of a position now as they have ever been.

The first contracted player has left Carlisle United this summer, and it represents how far the club have come in recent times.

Jack Armer has been bought by Burton Albion for an undisclosed fee. He leaves Brunton Park after racking up over 170 appearances and a promotion with the Blues.

While they never planned to offload the 23-year-old this summer, they were able to negotiate what they felt was a decent deal for themselves. The fact that he still had another two years left on his deal would have helped their cause in that regard.

The Cumbrians aren't regular producers of wanted talent, like a Peterborough United are, but, whenever one of their players has been wanted in the past, they have often been at the behest of the club at the opposite end of the negotiating table.

Not anymore.

Carlisle United's much improved transfer position

Club owner and chairman Tom Piatak said in a recent interview with BBC Radio Cumbria that the scale of the club's budget now is probably unlike anything they have had in the past.

Not only does this allow them to be much more competitive with player acquisition, but it also means that they are in a position where they don't need to sell players.

Instead of a team like Burton approaching Carlisle for one of their assets and likely having their way with them, because United weren't as financially strong in the past, the Blues can now confidently stand firm on their position if they don't want to sell a player until their desired fee is met.

This was confirmed by Piatak when he spoke to the News & Star. He said, before Armer's sale was confirmed: "We are not pressed to do deals, and we will do deals on Carlisle's terms, and that definitely is a change."

Like the Blues' new budget, this is a big contrast to previous years.

They often had to bend the knee to more powerful teams who were looking to snatch their best talents away from them, like an older brother would if his younger brother had the toy that he wanted, leaving United sad and disappointed to not have their prized possession any longer.

Having deeper pockets has given them such better leverage on these matters.

The most recent sale that the club made prior to Armer's departure was when they let homegrown talent Owen Moxon join eventual League One champions Portsmouth in the January window.

While the influx of new American money had already hit Carlisle by that point, they were still relatively powerless because of their relative league position and Moxon's contract status - he was set to leave for free in the summer.

While that is not the exact same scenario that has played out in the past where Carlisle have had to move players on for monetary reasons, the power deficit still existed in that deal.

Again, not anymore.

The downward league trajectory that they were on would've made it hard for them to hold onto the midfielder in the face of such interest. That is gone now.

A title/promotion push in League Two is the sole aim of the club, and everything seems to be pointing in the right direction.

All of their key assets are tied down to multi-year deals, alleviating the risk of them being backed into a corner again because of a player's refusal to sign a new deal.

Both in monetary and positional terms, they have grabbed the power back, and are now in a much better state to fend off attacks from other teams.

The little brother is now as big and strong as his sibling.

Jarrad Branthwaite factor could help Carlisle even more

Finances haven't been this stable at Brunton Park for a long time. What would give them an even bigger boost would be getting the sell-on money if Branthwaite departs Everton this summer.

Manchester United have had two bids rejected for the 21-year-old central defender. The Toffees are holding out for £70 million, which would mean, if i Sport's reporting of the Blues' 15% sell-on clause is accurate, they could receive an eight-figure total package.