Carden to decide Cambridge future

Cambridge United chairman George Rolls has said the future of Paul Carden will be resolved before the Us begin their hunt for a new manager.

Gary Brabin was dismissed as Us boss on Monday with player-assistant coach Carden handed temporary charge.

Rolls is keen for Carden to stay on at the Abbey and told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "We've got another board meeting on Friday.

"Hopefully by then we'll have a better indication of where his future lies."

Carden arrived at Cambridge as a player, initially on loan in late 2007, and was instrumental in bringing Brabin, his best friend in football, to the club.

The former Southport boss was sacked by the U's on Monday with the board citing disagreements over the playing budget.

Rolls says the club are willing to consider Carden as a potential managerial candidate, but accepts he may not wish to stay now Brabin has left.

"We've got respect that his best mate has left the football club and he needs time to think things over," Rolls said.

"If Paul wants to stay as assistant manager for example, we would make it clear to the new manager that Paul is part of the package," he said.

"Equally if Paul wants to be considered for the management position we may go down the route of looking for an experienced coach to help him."

The U's have already had over 80 applicants for the managers' job and have started making tentative plans.

"We won't be making an illegal approach for any manager who is currently in a job, so at the moment we haven't made an approach for Mark Cooper [Kettering] or Steve Evans [Crawley]," Rolls said.

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Who will be appointed as Cambridge's next manager?

Meanwhile, Carden refused to give much away after Tuesday's 4-0 defeat to Blackburn.

"I'm contracted to Cambridge United as player-assistant manager and I've be asked to take charge of the team and I will do that until I'm told otherwise," he said.

"I haven't been offered anything as such, I still have a job here, so the board don't need to rush into anything and neither do I."

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