The more things change, the more they stay the same

To keep my mind occupied as we wait with bated breath for the fixtures to come out (come on, it can't be just me who wants to know when to book that romatic weekend in, er, Gateshead) I've been reading a very good book.

Published by When Saturday Comes, it is entitled Power, Corruption, and Pies vol. 2 (it is, as you've probably guessed, a follow up to Power Corruption and Pies vol. 1), and contains a collection of the best articles published in WSC between 1997 - 2007.

As befits a publication from Britain's most consistently interesting football magazine, there are some extremely excellent pieces. One which caught my eye was an interview with Claude Le Roy undertaken during the 1998 world cup, in which our erstwhile manager and then custodian of the Cameroon national team says football offers "une jouissance permanente" - a permanent orgasm. One suspects he may have revised this view after coaching the likes of Ashley Nicholls and Danny Webb, because if not I feel very sorry for Mrs Le Roy.

Another which struck a chord is entitled Crossing the Vauxhall Bridge, and concerns overspending chairman in the (then) Vauxhall Conference. What hit me most was how little has changed in the 11 years since Simon Bell wrote the article in November 1997. Consider the following quotes:

"One of the most irritating things about the Vauxhall Conference wants to be - really wants to be - the Football League. It's bit embarrassing."

"The result is a league in limbo, a small pool containing a few potentially league-sized fish and a rather larger shoal of tiddlers living beyond their means in the fond belief that they will one day grow legs and scramble out of the swamp - and to hell with the cost."

"Division Five', wherein 22 thrusting and ambitious clubs would joust for the right to play Hartlepool has never quite become a reality."

Sound familiar? If you changed a few of the names the article could still apply today. For Colne Dynamos and Sittingbourne then, substitute Farsley Celtic, Salisbury, or any of the other teams currently on the financial precipice.

It's depressing on two levels really. One, because chairman are still stupid enough to bankroll these nothing clubs in the vain hope of achieving some modicum of success. And two, because despite their claims to the contrary, the Conference management continue to do nothing of consequence about it. Instead they prefer to fiddle at the edges, everytime promising a tough regime but allowing teams like Weymouth overpsend again and again and again.

So despite these boasts of Setanta-enforced austerity from all and sundry, what's the betting that by January they'll be more than one chairman overstretching themselves to try and push their club into the promised land? Who knows, our own Chairman George might be one of them.

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Location location location

I've been severely lacking inspiration of late; it's like someone has snuck into my flat in the middle of the night and removed my blogging-mojo with a syringe, Austin Powers style.

But then again, this has been such a boring close-season so far that there has been little worth writing about. Is anyone really that interested in the Abbey getting a new-yet-meaningless official name, or the Brabinator picking up a manager of the year award, or even Marvin the Moose standing for parliament? I've changed my mind on the merits of stability, it's just too dull for words.

Although if half man/half moose Jeremy Izod does get elected, perhaps he can bring some pressure to bear regarding a new stadium for United. This particularly old chestnut has been getting a bit of coverage in the CEN this week, and is already following a familiar pattern:

1) Someone from "our" side - in this case the Cambridgeshire FA's Jim Hill - makes some optimistic noises, usually involving the words "very positive talks", "10,000 seater stadium", "community facilities that can be used all year round".

2) A faceless council bod pours cold water on the idea, citing traffic, or preservation of the green belt, or some other unintelligible planning issues beyond the understanding of us mere mortals.

I suspect I am not the only United fan not to be giving this story much credence. We've heard it all before, several times, and I believe if we are to ever get a new stadium, it won't be with any local authority assistance. Even with the weight of the Cambridge Horizon project and the Cambs FA seemingly behind us, it looks like the councils are going to drag their heels again, just like they have every other time the sites at Milton and Cowley Road have been discussed. Perhaps if we subtly changed our name to Cambridge University FC they might be a bit more co-operative?

At the moment I think United need to concentrate on maximising income from the stadium that we do have, something they've been doing pretty well of late. In the long term we probably need to get out of rented accomodation and onto the property ladder, but if the team are running out at a new arena by the start of the 2015/16 season, I'll eat my hat.

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Money worries

£80million for one footballer eh, what's the world coming to, footballs gone mad, etc etc.

Still, Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer to Real Madrid will hopefully benefit Cambridge United. With so much cash burning a hole in his back pocket, Alex Ferguson is bound be on the lookout for a swashbuckling wide man to fill the Portuguese preeners' shoes, and where better to start than with the best winger outside the football league? Pack your bags and start working on that pout Courtney.

How the Brabinator would love to have access to some of Madrids money as he continues to adjust to life working for the newly prudent, money-conscious, and solvent(!) CUFC regime.

"As it stands, we've got no money to bring people in. We're cutting the budget, which has been well documented, and it's not because of a lack of trying on my part," he told the CEN, denying reports that he and Paul Carden are planning busking sessions in Cambridge town centre to raise extra funds. "Losing Phil [Bolland] is going to be a grave loss, but that's the situation we're in at the moment. It would be nice to have another centre-back to give us competition for places."

The same article sees Brabin bigging up Josh Coulson. I suppose he's unlikely to say anything else when he's only got two centre backs in his squad, but I'd be more than a little concerned if Josh begins the season as first choice. He clearly has the attributes to make it as a player at this level, but every time I see him play he seems to make a costly mistake; I can think back to Crawley (A), Histon (H), and Stevenage (A) in the play-offs where his errors have led directly to us conceding goals, and this is something he'll need to eradicate these from his game if he is to, in Brabin's words, "kick on and start playing regular football".

Of course young players improve all the time, so it's entirely possible that 2009/10 will be the year Josh really makes a name for himself. If he is given the chance, I hope for our sake that he is able to grab it.

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*Insert Reason pun of choice here*

Where did this term "marquee signing" come from?

I don't know if it's just me, but it seems to have been creeping into football vocabulary more and more in the last few months; Real Madrid have got one, Chelsea want one, and Man City are promising Mark Hughes he'll get one, although given their recent transfer policy they'll probably bid for a few but end up buying Kevin Davies instead.

Somehow I doubt anyone who has signed for Cambridge United has ever been afforded marquee status, but Jai Reason must qualify as a small tent. Or at least an awning.

"I thought he got better and better with every game [of his loan spell], and I think he's got more to offer as well," said the Brabinator on his signing. The latter part is certainly true, although I'm not sure about the former. I felt Jai's form dipped a little prior to the end of the season, although he was one of our better players in both games against Stevenage and the play-off final. It's normal for a young players form to fluctuate a bit, so I'm sure he'll prove to be a decent acquisition, and should be able to provide the goals from midfield we missed last term following Wolleaston's departure.

The less said about our new kit the better though. "We're pleased with this innovative new design," said Chairman George, when unveiling the River Plate-esque number our players will be sporting next year. Personally I wouldn't put our new jersey alongside the Adidas Predator or the Cameroon sleeveless shirt in the innovation stakes, but there we go. As long as the finished design is hewn of a darker yellow material than the prototype, I'm sure I'll learn to love it. Maybe.

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AOB: Fifa bright idea #7687321532

Football can get very boring sometimes, especially at this time of year.

It looks like it we are going to be faced with another summer of Cristiano Ronaldo-related speculation, after the winger was characteristically vague about his future in the wake of the Champions League final. We he go to Real Madrid? Will he stay at Man U? By the time he's decided will anybody care? Who knows, but whatever the outcome it's sure to keep the Sky Sports News ticker turning for the next couple of months.

I'm picking on Ronaldo because he's a thoroughly dislikeable little man, but of course he's far from the only boring thing about the beautiful game. One of my particular bug bears is the continual debate about the use of technology in football, which crops up every time a refereeing error is made in a big game such as the FA Cup final.

Personally I don't understand the obsession with getting all decisions right - while refereeing errors going against you are a pain in the proverbial, football would be pretty dull if we didn't have incompetent officials to rant about. But if the rules are to be changed to help the refs, I think it should be for non-subjective decisions such as whether the ball has crossed the line. Surely it would be fairly simple to install some kind of sensor which would indicate whether a goal has been scored or not? That way there would be no gray areas and nobody could complain of unfair treatment.

But no, the bright sparks at FIFA have decided that the best way to improve referees is to, er, add more referees, with extra officials stationed on the touchlines to monitor penalty areas. They will do so in next years Europa League (the rebranded UEFA cup), a move which is bound to do wonders(!) for the competitions already nominal credibility.

I entirely fail to see the logic behind this scheme. You can add as many extra officials as you like, but there is still the possibility of a decision being called incorrectly due to simple human error. And if errors can still be made, then what's the point of changing things in the first place? All it will do is slow the action down while the referee confers with his extra colleagues, and we'll end up with a fragmented sport akin to Rugby or American Football.

We'll see how the project works out in the coming months, but I suspect that, much like Kick-In's and The Respect Campaign, these extra officials will turn out to be one-season wonders.

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Pitt and Challinor on the list

Typical, I spent ages (well, a few minutes anyway) writing a piece yesterday about nothing happening, then while I'm doing it something happens, with Challinor and the Pittster being transfer listed.

"Whine grumble moan budget cuts moan whinge finding it hard to strengthen the squad whine whinge high earners grumble grumble grumble," said the Brabinator, neglecting to mention that the reason we're having to chop the budget now is because he spent so much last year.

I have mixed feeling about the potential departures. Challinor is obviously no great loss, having confirmed my pre-season fears that he is a dark-haired version of David Bridges with a series of anonymous performances. You can tolerate those kind of players if they score a few goals, but a record of two in 37 games is hardly earth-shattering. He seems to have done well everywhere else he's been, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get someone to take him off our hands, although I guess we'll have to write off the £15,000 we spunked on him last summer.

Courtney is a very different kettle of fish, and I'm surprised to see that, judging by the posts on the official messageboard, many people would be happy to see him go. The Pittster may be inconsistent, but you can certainly never accuse him of not working hard for the team, and while his form has been a bit patchy since Christmas, he is on the way back from a fairly serious injury to it would be a bit harsh to judge him on that alone. Most importantly, we will need to replace him with a better left-sided player, which could prove tricky as they don't exactly grown on trees. I hope our leader knows what he is doing.

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Shhhhhhhhhhhh

Hello everybody, I'm back from my holidays, all refreshed and newly married.

It (the wedding) went very well, thankyou for asking, and I'd just like to thank Rev Stuart Wood for a couple of little United-related surprises which he organised to make the day a particularly memorable one for myself and the new Mrs Gooding.

As anyone who has planned a wedding will probably confirm, they tend to be all-consuming affairs, especially in the immediate run up to the big day, and as such I've not been keeping a close eye on events at the Abbey in the last week. However, a quick perusal of the official site would suggest that nothing much has gone on anyway.

You can tell it's quiet because the CEN are doing what they usually do when there's nothing happening, which is to interview someone - in this case Paul Carden - once, then chop it up into bite-size chunks to spread out through the week. Thus we have; REASON SET TO SIGN UP - CARDEN, CARDEN PLEDGES TO COMBINE PLAYING AND COACHING (a radical step for someone who is, afterall, a player/coach), and PROMOTION WELL WITHIN U'S REACH SAYS CARDEN. I can't wait for tomorrow's headline, which I predict will be something groundbreaking like FIXTURES OUT SOON - CARDEN or WE WILL PLAY SOME FRIENDLIES REVEALS CARDEN. Stay tuned news fans.

Anyway, it seems the Reason deal is all but done, which is obviously a positive step. Let's hope they're only keeping McMahon hanging around as a back plan, in case it all falls through at the last moment. If we're having a new, slimline, squad for next season I hardly think we need six central midfielders competing for two places.

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