ANYONE applying for the England head coach's job in the year 2000, after the resignation of Kevin Keegan, got a courteous letter back from the Football Association's chief executive, Adam Crozier.

Whether an actual contender or a Championship Manager addict with too much time on his hands, the reply was the same: thanks for your application, grateful for the interest, we've identified our criteria, a shortlist of three will be contacted shortly, yours sincerely, yadda yadda.

The kindest part of all? The letter did not explicitly rule its recipient out of the running. No matter how unlikely one's CV, nowhere in the five polite paragraphs did it say thanks, but no thanks.

This enabled any joker who had tried it on with the FA to boast that their chances of leading the Three Lions were still officially alive. If your friends were easily impressed, the mileage was considerable.

Perhaps this is where Carlisle United are with their billionaire right now. So what that 270 tumbleweed-strewn days have passed since his "genuine and firm" interest was expressed? He hasn't said no, not officially at least, so we're still in the game.

If there are other reasons why such a strange and rather embarrassing wheeze has not been dropped by those in power at United, what are they?

A couple of sources around the club have suggested the official statement announcing its passing may indeed be on the way soon. On BBC Radio Cumbria last week, James Phillips said he had heard from somebody "high up" at Brunton Park that the billionaire investment would not, after all, be happening.

One has to wonder if these messages are being nudged out to prepare the public for the big news. Either way, it does not require Deep Throat sources to know that Carlisle are not on the brink of being whisked away on the arm of one of the world's 1,826 richest people (Forbes magazine last year estimated that such a number of billionaires exist).

The old saying - if something looks, walks and sounds like a duck then it probably is a water-going wildfowl with a bill - needs to apply here. For some time our billionaire has not done any of the things that would make him look like a credible investor in Carlisle United, such as meeting those involved, coming to a match, or actually ponying up the small change he would need to afford a stake in a relatively small English League Two football club.

Despite last May's talk of a meeting within "five to 10 days", he has neither walked, talked nor looked like United's saviour. To put Carlisle's waiting in context, there have been 50 managerial departures in England's four divisions since that infamous statement was issued.

Much has happened at United in that time, not least welcome cash from two major cup ties and a pair of player sales, as well as the floods whose devastation the club responded to admirably. Yet in other ways, Carlisle continue bobbing along without reform.

Yesterday's news that the club have apparently rebuffed a £2 million plan from local businessmen and the Carlisle United Official Supporters' Club extended the period of waiting for new money to wash through Brunton Park. It followed the stormy rejection of the Andrew Lapping scheme last summer, and a couple of proposals from the club's owners themselves that CUOSC didn't think amounted to much.

The benefits of United's recent six-figure income, the Everton FA Cup game providing the latest, have been regularly discussed. In his programme notes last weekend chairman Andrew Jenkins described this as "much-needed", whilst pledging the loot would not be "wasted" on player deals. They were not the words of someone who sees the end in sight for a regime as it is (one that struggled to stem large losses, until this unusual campaign).

A penny, in these circumstances, for Fred Story's thoughts, the former owner having written off £1.1million of debt in December 2014 with a view to helping the club attract new investment, but no such investment having been secured in the 14 subsequent months.

These matters, which go to the heart of Carlisle United, have rightly been down the agenda since the floods. December 5's disaster brought the club to national prominence for its suffering and then its positive and thoughtful handling of crisis.

Yet raising the topics again is not shooting Bambi. If United can hold investment discussions a mere month and 10 days after the floods - which, according to the CUOSC proposal, they did, on January 15 - then we are within our rights to ask about these, as well as the wider picture.

Until the last couple of weeks Brunton Park was a magnet for national media. Despite some supporters having long urged such people to look at Carlisle's "billionaire" fable, none did. The floods offered a human interest story that made any digging into the club's finances not worth bothering with.

Reporters and photographers filed words and images that seized the country's attention. There was no call from the newsdesk for a deeper delve. They turned up, did an excellent job of covering the Storm Desmond mayhem, and left.

In other words - if anyone is going to test United out on their financial stories and plans, they are going to be based right here, in this community. Scrutiny must come from within.

We are on our own now, that much is clear, and so, if director of external affairs John Nixon can grant BBC Five Live an interview, as he did before the Everton game, perhaps he could also find a moment to get back to the News & Star on our 20 questions, originally posed on October 3 and which were resubmitted - at his invitation - on December 1, chiefly about the one investor the Blues haven't yet got round to rejecting?

Otherwise, it is more silence, and when things aren't said, one's mind can run off with strange ideas. Such as you and me managing England, or a billionaire emptying his account for the dear old Blues.