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.