"It just feels like the continuation of a bloody good life."
Since he first walked away from home-city club Carlisle United as a two-time promotion winner more than 16 years ago aged 39, it's fair to say things have changed for Paul Simpson.
After spells in charge of Preston, Shrewsbury and Stockport while still learning his trade as a manager, 2017 saw him become only the second England boss to win a World Cup since 1996 by guiding the Three Lions to glory in the under-20 edition.
After his triumph in South Korea, however, his life has been as much about challenges off the pitch as on it. Diagnosed with cancer in June 2021 while part of Nigel Pearson 's coaching staff at Bristol City, the ex- Manchester City and Derby winger, now 56, had to put football on hold - not that he saw tackling a tumour on his kidney as a drastically different obstacle.
"I suppose when I look back at what happened to me with the cancer, I do think I've been really lucky, but I don't see that as being like a turning point in my life," Simpson tells Mirror Football .
"I just see that as being one of life's little obstacles that you've just got to get over. I don't look at the cancer as being any worse than times I've been sacked before, it's just one of them things that you've just gotta deal with and hope you come through it, get on with the next phase and that's where I am now.
"It's been a really good time since I came back here; I feel really healthy, I've got no concerns at all and I'm not just enjoying football, I'm enjoying my life as well. Maybe that just comes with getting to 56. Maybe you just think, 'You know what? Just get on with it and enjoy life'."
And why not enjoy it? Back where it all started, the Carlisle-born coach produced a rescue act in February when he was appointed to save the Blues' Football League status. Sat second-bottom of the fourth division with 15 games remaining, Simpson repeated his heroics from the mid-2000s and galvanised an apathetic Brunton Park to pull off what was, in the end, a comfortable survival.
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Putting pen to paper on a three-year deal in April, Simpson is now planing for a future back home in Cumbria without relegation battles; one more like when the Blues enjoyed back-to-back promotions in 2005 and 2006, as they spectacularly rose from the Conference to League One to wash away a period of turmoil at the turn of the century. So, after beating cancer last autumn and moving back home with wife Jacqui, does it all feel like phase two?
"It doesn't to be honest with you. I've got to say it just feels like the continuation of a bloody good life," Simpson, in his typically measured manner, affirms over a Zoom call. "I've certainly got a different perspective on it because when I first came here in 2003, I wasn't even thinking about being a manager again.
"I'd had a year [as player-manager] at Rochdale, I came back here because Roddy Collins offered me the chance to come and just concentrate on playing, and I was quite looking forward to that challenge. The situation changed quickly and then the whole thing snowballed, but I was starting off in management then and I was chasing something.
"I wasn't touting myself around for jobs but I was always looking thinking, 'Can I go and work at the highest level? Can I go to the Championship? Can I get to the Premier League?'. And then after years and years of being involved in it and doing different things, I'm not chasing anything for me and my family now.
"But I'm not chasing that now, I'm really comfortable with where I'm at in my life. I'm comfortable being here, I don't think of myself as someone who wants to manage in the Championship or in the Premier League. I've come here and I was delighted when they offered me a three-year contract to stay because it made me sort of make the definite decision to come and move back to the area.
"Me and Jacqui have moved back to Carlisle, I really like living here, I'm enjoying the club. It's still a big challenge - weather conditions like this where we have got absolutely no surfaces to train on, it's a bloody nightmare. But I like the challenge of it, I like the day-to-day stuff."
Like any family with three children, the Christmas period presents a challenge in itself, and this year will feel especially different for the Simpson clan. Not only is it the former Oxford and Wolves wide man's first Christmas as a grandad, but the first time he'll be able to enjoy his turkey dinner in Carlisle for 17 years.
"It's the first time since 2005 that I've had Christmas at home," Simpson beams. "I am really looking forward to it. It's my first Christmas as a grandad, so I am really looking forward to it, I can't wait. Thankfully, at some point over Christmas I've got all the boys back, so that'll be good to see them all.
"I've got one who lives in Carlisle, one in Manchester and one in London, so our chances the chances of getting them all in the same city or the same building are very few and far between, so I'm really looking forward to that."
When the table's been cleared and washing up gets done, Simpson can concentrate on how he plans to spend Boxing Day; on the Brunton Park touchline as Carlisle host Bradford in a mouthwatering clash.
But with a rearranged trip Northampton coming before then, the fact the Blues are even talking about keeping their spot in the play-offs over the festive period is a testament to his work since his triumphant return 10 months ago.
"I can certainly look forward now," Simpson declares. "At the time when I came back in February it literally was just look game to game, and just make sure we deal with each one as they come along and sort of cross them off when you got the points in the bag. We’re in a little bit of a different situation now.
"Obviously you always look behind you but we're actually looking up and looking to see where we can actually go to, not being cocky about it but just trying to have a bit of confidence and a bit of belief. We're looking to try and make our squad a bit stronger to have a real push over these next 26 games which is what we've got left.
"That's a nice feeling to have rather than be the thinking, 'What can we do to help us stay up?' - although that's still our first target to make sure we get enough points to stay in the league - we're actually looking to see what can make us better to see what can take us even higher in the table than we are now."
With age, experience and mileage, leading the charge at Brunton Park is much different prospect to how it used to be for the once go-getting coach. At 56, the rollercoaster of English football is less of a bumpy ride, but that doesn't suggest that Simpson has plans to jump off any time soon.
He's made a raft of behind-the-scenes improvements to push Carlisle into the modern era, with more positive results serving as proof of progress. Although the Blues have endured a rather depressing return to the fourth tier since suffering relegation in 2014, attendances have shot up during Simpson's return and they'll be sat fourth at Christmas should they pick up all three points at Northampton on Tuesday.
"I still have the desire to win every single game and I still get annoyed by players in training when they don't want to win in a small-sided game or in a possession game," he adds, speaking between back-to-back call-offs due to the winter freeze. "I still don't get why you wouldn’t wanna do everything you can to win, so during a match I do, I desperately wanna win.
"But it's a different sort of thing now because in the past I was maybe a bit selfish and I wanted to win for me, but now I actually wanna win for the players and I wanna win for the supporters. I don’t really think about me because I know that once the game's gone; I've gone away, I've done my media after a game, I've reviewed the match, I know that I've got a really good life.
"I know that I'm still gonna be happy at home, I've gone past the stage where I take it home with me. I'm still not a barrel of laughs if we've lost but I don't get totally screwed up about it like I would've done in the past, and there are times in the past where I'd still be angry come Wednesday or Thursday that week. Well, I'm not now because I've realised it doesn't help anybody.
"You have to just get it out of your system, so I try to get it out of my system at home on Sunday when I review the game I know how I'm then gonna deal with the next week, and that's the way I try to do it. I just think I'm different now, and this isn't to do with health, I think it's just experience in football that you just learn to get on with it, and the next one comes along very quickly and you hope that you can turn it around in the next one."
Whether or not Simpson can repeat his promotion magic still remains a question to be answered, but there's no doubt that he's turned the Blues around from a club looking over its shoulder to one gazing at the face of success.
