Former Portsmouth and Tottenham defender Ricardo Rocha is on trial at Playford Road this week. The 33-year-old left Pompey at the end of last season.

Blues manager Paul Jewell told the club site that the six-times-capped Portuguese international joined up with the club yesterday: “Ricardo is here for the week and we will take it from there.”

Santo Tirso-born Rocha played youth football with ARC Areias and started his senior career with Famalicão before moving on to Braga and Benfica. During five years with the Lisbon side he won the Portuguese League, Cup and Supercup and appeared in the Champions League.

In January 2007 he joined Tottenham for £3.3 million but having made only 16 first team starts and two sub appearances he moved on to Belgian side Standard Liege in the summer of 2009.

A year later he was off to Pompey, where he played until being released in May, making 71 starts and five appearances from the bench.

Last week one-time Bolton and West Brom centre-half Abdoulaye Meite was on trial with the Blues but Town are yet to take their interest any further.

The 33-year-old told the French press that he wasn't confident of winning a deal despite impressing Jewell, citing Town's current lowly position in the table and suggesting that the manager might not be persuade the Blues' money men to offer terms: "I am rather pessimistic, because he is not in a strong position at the moment because of the bad position of the team."

Photo: Action Images

Plums added 13:31 - Sep 25 I love the t-shirts he sells in Debenhams.
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TR11BLU added 13:33 - Sep 25 Another 33 yr old on the way down. Months loan anyone......? What a waste of time. Jewell out now.
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kizaitfc added 13:33 - Sep 25 Dont think he is our answer Although we dont have huge amounts of money, i feel we need to sign a first team player that has potential There are plenty about and im sure some want to come here especially from league 1
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WeirdFishes added 13:35 - Sep 25 Not bad i guess
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theipswichking5 added 13:35 - Sep 25 waste of time hes old and slow, pompey got relegated by the way. #JEWELLIN
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nitroblue1970 added 13:36 - Sep 25 he was decent a few years ago....meite was decent a few years ago.....both yesterdays men.. like our current "manager"....
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Surco72 added 13:37 - Sep 25 I like Rocha a lot top defender who is aggresive and will go for everything ,and will compliment Chambers and teach Smith
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casanovacrow added 13:38 - Sep 25 still looking at the wrong players, so much for looking to the future. Dire times at PR
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Drew added 13:38 - Sep 25 Oh god no, the man is a catastrophe.
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BoredWithThisNow added 13:38 - Sep 25 Any good at managing?
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TimmyH added 13:42 - Sep 25 Jewell just loves his old players, must make him feel younger on the training field!
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WeirdFishes added 13:42 - Sep 25 besides, what happened to the young and hungry players we want to sign?
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brendenward35 added 13:42 - Sep 25 Let's face it Jewell's hand are tied, club won't spend the money getting players in, wage structure is poor and all that's left is has been's not all the managers fault. Do you honestly think if a manager who is likely to lose his job could get in a decent player he would turn down the offer for a has been? If Clegg and Evans have lost faith in Jewell and won't part with any cash then they should do the right thing. Maybe a new manager with a pot of cash might do something and get one of two of the missing players.

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paulcooperisgod added 13:45 - Sep 25 I love his expensive chocolate in gold wrapping
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warbeat78 added 13:46 - Sep 25 Scored 5 goals since 2001 though lol
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alliedaz added 13:46 - Sep 25 when does this painful season end plz go jewell and dont drag us down anymore,you had all of summer to sort your team out and looks what happened,a player here a player there on trial,watched,enquired and still nothing,and evans grow a pair of balls and backbone as losing 5million a season must be hurting
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BlooooCD added 13:48 - Sep 25 So we wait for the wonderful window of transfers allowing us to get any surplus talent from prem clubs and the like and end up signing crocks that can't even get a club.... dear oh dear!
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Lightningboy added 13:50 - Sep 25 This is NOT the way forward..another potential signing that smacks of desperation. What the hell is going on at our club??!!
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howdonblue added 13:51 - Sep 25 The merry go round continues another washed up never has been!! A once great club going down the pan .. Jog on jewell and co
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tractorblue99 added 13:51 - Sep 25 Not a bad defender.
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JimmyJazz added 13:52 - Sep 25 The quality of trialists is getting lower and lower
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warbeat78 added 13:53 - Sep 25 So good on set plays then just not sure wether they at right end or not!!!
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Surco72 added 13:53 - Sep 25 casanovacrow ...surely we have two young centre backs for the future and they are being criticised every week .We need an old head in the back four to settle everyone ,and you cannot count Edwards as he will never be a defender
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RYITFC added 13:59 - Sep 25 This really is desperate stuff, basically any centre half who is a free agent come and have a trial. Why has it come to this? Scrapping around for these short term fixes. Why or why did we let Delaney go without a replacement lined up, why did we not recruit another centre half even before the Delaney situation arised, we were terrible at the back last year, everyone could see that.

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SouperJim added 14:05 - Sep 25 Jewell's failure to adequately strengthen the defence in the time he's been here is criminal. Nobody is saying it's an easy job or can be solved by the wave of a magic wand, but we've arguably gone backwards in this area under Jewell. We are still two defenders short and it doesn't matter what the reasons are, he should pay the ultimate price for his failings. This guy might do a job for us, Sonko MKII, but it's just another reminder of what a cock-up Jewell has made of things.

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