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

StuartBrett8 added 19:12 - Sep 25 He's a free agent ...
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blues1 added 19:17 - Sep 25 righty. no he wasnt lieing. willgive him that. he tried to sign a cb, & if youd read the story several weeks ago, actually had a player in the office, everything agreed, but the players manager called him back due to an injury. therefore he has been forced into using the loan market for now. unfortunate & hardly ideal but thats how it is. hopefully by the jan window, we'll have a new manager & this situation will finally be sorted long term

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cantona11 added 19:23 - Sep 25 come on everyone think before you message wots a new manager going to do let PJ ideas come good cos i think they will (i hope they do) M.E is obiously not going to give out much money on salaries to new players that might not solve our problems makes sense i think wot i dont like though is we have two good centre mids in andy and luke and he plays loan players that if we dont get out of this situation go back to there parent clubs and don't care and on another note lee martin is probably our highest earner along with carlos and in my veiw r the worse players at the club lee doesn't do anything for the team but loss the ball and for a winger which is where his position started before his headless chicken position behind striker can not cross for s#@t and as for carlos another winger converted into a defender cant cross either they do not work down that side bring in jack ainsley cos he can only get better with playing and he can cross the ball and M.E and S.C BRING DOWN THE PRICE OFF TICKETS TO £12-£15 AND FILL OUT THE GROUND AND LETS GET BEHIND THE TEAM BECAUSE AT THE MO PEOPLE AREN'T GOING TO PAY £32 TO GO WATCH THIS DRIVEL

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h32 added 19:29 - Sep 25 Jewell's a clever man - he knows how to get paid extremely well to do nothing other than 'thrash around in the dark' - here is another example of just that. Headlines next week 'We've not pursued our interest in Rocha' - as another one goes the same way.
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Infineteregress added 19:33 - Sep 25 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." ------------------------------- If this is the case then Jewell can't be entirely blamed for the club's perilous position. Evans has to either back him or sack him. Anything in between and we'll be going nowhere fast (except possibly League 1 next year).

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WickedBlue added 20:07 - Sep 25 I remember you morons calling De Vos old over the hill etc etc yet was our best defender last season he was here and arguably the best defender in thd Championship. But you morons want to dismiss experience you're all idiots.
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StuartBrett8 added 20:15 - Sep 25 Moaners will always moan... never happy
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Talbs77 added 20:17 - Sep 25 I think this is the one subject I cant try to defend pj on. He's made a total mess out of gtting in the cb's we needed and I think it could well be the issue that losses him his job, although I hope I'm wrong.
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oohaahstevepalmer added 20:56 - Sep 25 This is all we can attract!! 30+ has been rejects!! Nice1 pj!
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ericclacton added 21:56 - Sep 25 Well we definitely need a defender who has a strong presence. Did you notice how easy it was for Fuller to score on saturday. Luongo lost the ball in midfield to Fuller who then ran at Smith who backed off and allowed Fuller an easy shot on goal , Luongo just stood and watched.
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runaround added 22:29 - Sep 25 A dodgy defender who helped take Pompey down? Sounds perfect!!! The comments from Meite are very worrying if we wont even pay contracts to out of work players!! If ME's penny pinching is that severe, we WILL go down
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hairbear added 22:31 - Sep 25 Jewell is a liar, a desparate liar. Well out of his depth. Sooner he's gone the better JEWELL OUT!!!!
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cats_whiskers added 02:24 - Sep 26 Why do they keep having just the one player a week... And what is the missing ingredient when they aren't taken on It's a well known fact that players who are in their 30's tend to out with injuries Kennedy was one, Ingimarsson another Bowyer and Bullard in and out of the side It might have been sensible to have kept Sonko, rather than have a different trialist each week... Jewell is quoted as once saying in the EADT "Maybe we should sit back and have more of a plan. Target players earlier" http://www.eadt.co.uk/sport/ipswich-town/jewell_we_were_guilty_of_panic_buying_l Has he been shown to doing just that? perhaps he should stick to what comes out of his mouth Perhaps he finds those words easy to say to satisfy journalists. I just feel he no longer can construct a team that can go out and do a job on the pitch, occasionally they might get a result. Consistently they wont with this present squad as it lacks real winners Kuszczak decided on Brighton, perhaps proving his reasons for not joining us were correct, you only have to look at the current table.

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werderbremenblue added 07:33 - Sep 26 no just no!!
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runningout added 11:59 - Sep 26 we are all curious why he is without a club.. Has he wanted a break? Greedy agent? or a liability? yes they are all negative.. Just how I feel at the mo, Sorry
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BrettenhamBlue added 13:57 - Sep 26 Paul Jewell needs to take a gamble and sign a couple of centre-backs. We should sign up Kevin Pezzoni (he's young, tall, and a former German U21 International). How bad could he have got in a short period of time? He's worth a gamble. Yes, Ricardo Rocha is 33 but we should sign him up as well. We need these 2 players in asap. At the moment if you were a striker (at Barnsley for example) you would know EXACTLY who you are going to play against. Yes, Chambers and Smith. You could work out their weaknesses and work on that in training. More competition would lead to more confusion as to who you are playing against on Saturday. We are far too predictable at present. Other teams know with 95% certainty exactly what team we are going to put out...... Paul Jewell, you need to save your job and save this club. Sign, Sign, Sign. Its worth the risk.

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bluesman added 17:12 - Sep 26 I'll say it again this is not Jewell's fault. We have been after a succession of decent players who have been interested in the club and interested in working for Jewell but have lost interest when they talk money with Clegg. They would have lost interest at that stage whoever was in charge. Jewell has us playing decent football (mostly) and has his hands tied behind his back. Clegg and Evans are gambling on staying up until the new rules kick in, and they will probably get away with it. But its not going to be a pleasant or comfortable season.

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