Bowden Confirms Gartland Talks - Ipswich Town News

Chief executive Derek Bowden has confirmed that Town have held talks with former Drogheda central defender Graham Gartland, but says the 25-year-old is yet to be offered a contract. Free agent Gartland recently spent a week training with the Blues.

TWTD first revealed that Gartland was at Playford Road, having been allowed to leave his Drogs contract early due to a financial crisis at the Irish club.

Scottish sides Hamilton Academical, St Johnstone and Kilmarnock, and Swedish clubs Elfsborg and Helsingborg were also reported to be interested, while the Irish B international reportedly trained with Burnley a fortnight ago.

Bowden confirmed that talks have taken place and a deal could happen in January: "He's not been offered a contract, although that's not to say he won't be. I have spoken to his agent and I've told him that we aren't going to decide anything until January.

"He's also talking to other clubs and if he finds another side in the meantime then good on him, but we're going to review it in January.

"Jim likes him, so it could happen but we're not going to sign someone now when we've got the window coming up.”

Bowden again dismissed reports claiming Town interest in Celtic defender Darren O'Dea: "I don't know where that came from. There is no interest in Darren O'Dea.”

Similarly, the Town chief executive says links with West Brom's Carl Hoefkens also came as a surprise: "I didn't know who he was, actually. That came out of nowhere that one.”

A move for ex-Blue Hermann Hreidarsson, currently at Portsmouth, is also not under discussion at present: "You could see someone drawing that conclusion, another old boy coming back, but there's been no communication.

"Nothing's impossible, but we've not spoken to either him or his agent. You never know what might happen, but we're not beating a path to his door at the moment.”

Bowden also dismissed links with former Newcastle full-back Steven Carr, which have persisted since the summer.

January could see a number of Argentinian additions to the squad with scouts Steve McCall and Simon Hunt back from trips to South America.

The duo are giving Bowden and the coaching staff the low-down on the players who impressed them: "Both Steve and Simon have just come back, so we are currently talking about the players that they looked at out there before making decisions on whether we want to get them over to look at them, if we can get them over.

"Quality players aren't going to trial more often than not, so we may have to make decisions without trialing them.

"All I can say is that there are some interesting players out there that have been scouted.

"We've tried to hone the list down to two or three players. They've obviously looked at tens of players but they've come to us with a shortlist with a dossier on each of them in terms of their career histories, their strengths and potential, weaknesses, what their clubs might want for them and what their wage expectations might be.

"Being EU passport holders is also critical because work permits are a nightmare. One of the advantages of Argentina is that many of the players do have EU passports, as opposed to Brazil or other South American countries.”

Bowden says the Blues will be working with Argentinian scout Horacio Lorda, who was previously involved in the deal which saw Mauricio Taricco join the Blues, in order to avoid some of the pitfalls involved in signing players from South America: "We will use an intermediary who is well versed in how things work in Argentina and will be very diligent and careful that we don't fall foul of any regulation.”

What to read next: