Football Season Guide

Cambridge look to the season with a lot of optimism after their most productive and promising transfer campaign in years. Richard Money rejected the chance to join an Indian club for big money back in June in order to continue the work he started last season with the once famous club that has been struggling in mediocrity in the Conference for a number of years now. He did not really pull any trees last season after taking over in September and a rather meek finish of the campaign took some of the gloss after a pretty promising run midway through the campaign. There were signs of promise but the squad clearly needed a lot of work and Money got his job done early in the summer. He brought in one of the most coveted strikers in the league, Adam Cunnington from Tamworth, along with explosive winger Ryan Donaldson from Gateshead. Dartford's pair Tom Bonner and Tom Champion, who were pivotal to the club's superb season last season, will add steel and steady presence in defence and midfield. Ian Miller is a very good defender too while Chris Maxwell joined on loan from Fleetwood and he is arguably one of the best keepers in the Conference. Given that Tom Elliott has stayed on and remains a very dangerous striker, the U's definitely have an improved and rather deep squad. Money is a shrewd manager who now has good options and this gives the fans plenty of reasons to feel good about the season ahead, something they have not felt for quite a while. The main worry is that this is basically a new team and it will take some time to gel despite the fact that almost all of the singings have been together since the first day of pre-season. Also, there are other very good teams in the league and Cambridge may find the competition too stiff to handle. Therefore, the best they could achieve is a play-off spot but they are more likely to just miss out.