This is my manor now

So the scaremongering stories from yesterday turned out to be just that, and Martin Ling is the new gaffer.

We as fans always take the piss out of the CEN for reading things on the messageboard and reporting them as fact, so maybe they were doing some clever reverse-prankery by picking Jerry Gill at random and throwing his name into the hat to get us all over excited. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit. Who knows.

Back to the man at hand. Ling was obviously the stand-out candidate, and with a squad built for passing football we're probably in better hands with him than a long-ball merchant like Liam Daish, even if he (Ling) does sound sound like a character from Lock Stock or Snatch. I hope his "contacts at the London clubs" are of the footballing nature, and not some kind of heavy mob who are going to come and demand protection money from Histon and City.

And it's a brave move from the board to put him on a three-year contract. I've been a United fan for coming up 18 years, and in that time we've had 12 managers (not including care-takers), only one of the whom has lasted for three years or more. That individual, Roy Mac, is also the only one of the dozen to have achieved a promotion, which probably says a lot about the merits of having stability at a football club. Hopefully tonight's match against the Liverpool XI will be the start of happy new era at CUFC.