By Albatross
June 25 2003

The Carling Cup draw has been made, and it's a trip to Sheffield Wednesday for Hartlepool United. Still no manager, but it seems we may still be signing players - so who's in charge? The first round of the newly-renamed Carling Cup will be played on either August 12th or 13th. What is it with beverages and this competition? Milk, Coca Cola, Worthington, and now, for three years, Carling. Get your money on it being the Tetley Tea Cup in 2007 now. A trip to Hillsborough is hardly an easy game, and it may be that this now throws our pre-season friendly with the Owls into doubt. The game was given the go-ahead after we discovered we weren't due to take them on in the League until October, but now there's in theory three weeks between the game at the Vic and our first competetive meeting of the season with them.

We should be hearing some news about our new manager shortly. Hodcroft said we were looking to appoint someone within two weeks, and that time is up in a couple of days. Currently the strong favourite seems to be Steve Cotterill, but until there's definate news then it all remains speculation. Cotterill's decision to pull out of the Manager Vote farce at Luton added fuel to the rumours, but opinion remains somewhat divided on if he'd be a good appointment. I personally reckon we could do a lot worse, but I'd also like to see who else has applied.

Although our wait for a new Manger goes on, it's not stopped us being linked with players. Over the weekend one of the Newspapers reckoned we were about to sign Steve Vickers and Tony Barrass; and the word in the North-West is that we've had a bid of £70,000 accepted for Bury's Captain Michael Nelson. Nelson's a Centre Half, and rated very highly by Bury fans; they reckon he's better than the likes of Paul Butler, and they certainly aren't happy at the prospect of the Bishop Auckland born player leaving for what they consider to be well below his true value.

Whether there's any truth behind these moves remains to be seen - although the Nelson one seems to be the hottest of the three - but it does raise some questions. If the club is bidding for players, then who's doing it? Were they set up by Newell before he left? Is Sheedy pulling the strings? Martin Scott? Or is it someone in the Boardroom, as hinted at by Newell before his departure?

No matter what, we should finally find out who the new boss will be by the end of the week; and if Nelson does arrive, at least we'll have gone a long way towards plugging the gap left by the departures of Lee, Sharp and Simms. All we need then is a right-sided midfielder, a central midfielder, a couple of forwards, a goalkeeper.....