Carden's Deal Not Assured?

So is Paul Carden about to be whisked away from us, denying Brian Little of a key part of his restructured side and forcing him to reassess his plans? According to today's edition of the Non League Paper (there's no link for the moment-they don't put it online until later in the week) they say that Cambridge are expected to name Southport's boss Gary Brabin as their new manager, and Carden, who is a friend of Brabin, is in line to be assistant.

Okay, we have a pre-contract agreement, but any deal can be torn up if the circumstances are right. Let's hope this is just paper talk though; the story does have a scatter-gun feel to it, even though their line is that Brabin will be appointed. There are other possible candidates explored, and Carden is not described as a shoo-in, but apparently United "sounded out Brabin about taking over, with his friend Paul Carden" (the quote has to end there as, frustratingly, there's a typo-the story switches to an inner page and a mistake means it pretty much ends there apart from seeming to suggest that appointing Carden would be a way of saving on an assistant manager's salary for a club which is embarking on what looks like a self-destructive cost-cutting exercise.)

Losing Carden would blow a big hole in Little's plans. It's no coincidence, I feel, that Carden was his first signing, and having released Danny Williams and Neil Roberts we need to import experience in the centre of the pitch. If Little is lining up a midfield of Carden and Tom Kearney, who is in limbo as we wait to see if Halifax will decide to defy logic and fight liquidation, then he might have to take emergency action soon. He seems to have acted swiftly to ensure they were in place, yet he might not have either of them.