Rumours from Nottingham suggest that Forest striker Steve Guinan could be about to join Cambridge United.

The suggestion is that Forest are interested in signing one of our players, with 23-year-old Guinan and a cash adjustment coming to the Abbey. Guinan was in the news last week after his loan spell at Scunthorpe ended with Brian Laws demanding he strip off his club tracksuit in the car park. The striker had refused to commit to a second month's loan and Laws insisted that only players who wanted to play for the Iron should wear the tracksuit. Guinan was left wearing just shorts and had to borrow clothes before driving home!

The 6' 1" striker has had six loan spells away from the City ground since 1995, scoring seven times from eleven starts for Plymouth last season, including a hat trick against Scunthorpe. This season he played three times for Scunthorpe in September, scoring once, and featured for Forest in two games earlier this season, but new manager David Platt has cast his net far and wide in the search for a new striker so his future could well lie away from the City Ground.

In today's Cambridge Evening News Roy McFarland revealed that a first division striker from a club which was recently in the Premiership would join on trial next week, but declined to name the player.

"He's a lad we've been interested in since he played against us while on loan last season," he said. "I don't want to name him at this stage because it alerts other clubs. As I said when we had a look at Darren Byfield from Aston Villa, our main priority is still an experienced defender, but while we are still on that search we can't ignore the chance to check out players in other positions.

"Also we know there is continuing interest in Martin Butler and Trevor Benjamin, and we have to have that in mind."

Butler's name came up on Brentford's Clubcall line yesterday when club owner Ron Noades suggested Cambridge had "moved the goalposts" in negotiations about Butler. He is still seeking another striker and said, "I have an interest in Martin Butler, but every time we get close to an agreement Cambridge put their price up."

In today's CEN McFarland responded, "We don't operate like that. You have to build up relationships in football, and you can't do that if you do things like making last-minute changes to deals. We rejected Brentford's offer because they wanted to pay the fee over a period of four years. I've never heard of a deal like that. We asked them to improve that part of it, but they haven't come back to us.

"Maybe Ron Noades believes he can put some pressure on us now, because when teams are near the bottom of a division they can be vulnerable to bids for a lot of reasons."