I think most people would acknowledge the fact that we ended the season with a very strong playing squad, but possibly one with too many numbers in it. We've undertaken a logical process, very much led by the manager, to reduce the number of players going into the new season.

We're down to about 16 contracted players now and, in my opinion, we've got a really good mix of established young players, younger players with some real potential and some very experienced players as well.

The manager has got his eye on two, or possibly three players to bring in to strengthen the squad and by inference they've got to be better than the players that we already have in the side.

Looking at the 16 players that we already have, I genuinely believe that the squad is stronger than the one we started last season with. So I look forward to the start of the new season with a great deal of optimism and excitement.

In terms of the finances, the Football Club's finances are certainly the best that they've been in the last two years - which is the period that I've been involved at board level - and I suspect that they are as good now as they've been in the last decade.

We've made some very real progress in terms of the management accounting at the club, which is an essential tool for directors, and that is something that we've not always had in the past.

The year-end figures to the end of our year, which is the end of May, are not quite ready yet but I know will show a very significant improvement on the preceding twelve months' trading position, which I'm pleased about. I think we've got some additional financial backing for the Football Club that we didn't have twelve or eighteen months ago. So in terms of the financial state of the Football Club, I'm pleased to say that it is in a very stable situation at the present time.

There's been very good progress made at board level over the last twelve months, with the addition of Norman Gautrey and George Rolls and Terry Baker coming back in to the fold. Local representation is much better than it was a year or two ago and the people who've come in have been able to give time, energy and an awful lot of business expertise where it was absolutely essential. From a Chairman's perspective, it's made the running and operation of the club very much more professional and much easier for all concerned.

Looking back at last season, the support throughout the year was absolutely superb and surpassed all of our expectation. The average crowd at the Trade Recruitment Stadium was around 3,700, which is a huge step up and plays such an important part for the Football Club on so many levels.

Taking 21,500 people to Wembley was a great testament to the progress that the club has made and the challenge for us now is to try and encourage a few more of those people to make the Trade Recruitment Stadium a regular place to visit. It goes a long way to illustrating the latent potential in Cambridge United and it's something that we want to be building on.

Looking ahead to the ultimate plan for the Football Club: clearly we want to get back into the Football League. We came very close to achieving that this year but sadly, as we all, know, it wasn't quite to be.

The thought that I would leave you with - and this is certainly the way we see it in the boardroom - is that Division Two is not so much a destination as a stopping off point and ultimately we want to get back into at least Division One. We genuinely feel that the foundations we're setting down now and the way we're organising the Football Club are those that will sustain us at the upper reaches of Division One within the not too distant future.

Philip Law
Chairman