League circles with Accrington Stanley but was allowed to join Cambridge United on loan in November 2007. After briefly returning to Stanley, Carden was allowed to join Cambridge for the remainder of the season on 3 January 2008. Carden was influential as Cambridge reached the Conference Premier play-off final at Wembley in May 2008. Although initially leaving Cambridge after their defeat in the play-off final to join Wrexham, Carden returned to Cambridge on 23 June 2008 as a player and assistant manager to Gary Brabin, his first management role. He was appointed as caretaker manager at Cambridge on 13 July 2009 after Brabin left the club following a second successive play-off final defeat in May. On 22 July Carden signed a three-year deal as player and assistant manager at Cambridge, despite there being no full-time manager in place at the time. Following Martin Ling's appointment as manager, Carden returned to assistant manager duties on 27 July 2009, but was forced to regain control after Ling's unexpected departure after only nine days at the club. After managing Cambridge to a win and a loss in their first two games of the season in August 2009, Ling was reappointed as manager on 12 August, leaving Carden once again as assistant manager. On 18 February 2011, Carden signed on loan for Luton Town until the end of the 2010–11 season, linking back up with Luton assistant manager Gary Brabin, who he had previously worked with at Cambridge. During that loan spell, Carden played against Cambridge despite being the club's assistant manager. On 16 June 2011, Carden had his contract at Cambridge United terminated. On 27 August 2011, Carden was appointed first-team coach at Luton, joining up once again with Gary Brabin, who was now the club's manager. Carden was registered as a player, and made his first appearance of the season in a 2–2 draw against Ebbsfleet United. He remained with Luton as a coach until January 2013, when his contract was terminated. Managerial career Carden was appointed Southport manager in January 2015 following the departure of Gary Brabin to Everton. Carden successfully kept Southport in the Conference Premier with some crucial wins against Halifax, Aldershot and Torquay United. However, he left the club in November 2015. He was appointed interim manager of Tranmere Rovers in September 2016 after a spell as assistant manager. On 26 October 2016, Paul Carden was named manager