Town boss Paul Jewell says he will speak to trialist Ricardo Rocha tomorrow, but has confirmed that he won’t be offering terms to ex-West Brom and Bolton defender Abdoulaye Meite, who spent last week at Playford Road.
Jewell says ex-Portsmouth and Spurs man Rocha is one of a number of trialists currently at the club: "He’s been training with us for a week. There are a few players that we’ve had training with us for a week, lads that are out of contract. I’ve told him I’ll speak to him tomorrow.”
He confirmed that Meite, who told the French press he was still waiting to hear from Jewell earlier in the week, won’t be joining the club: "We won’t be pursuing that, I don’t think.”
Plenty of trialists have come and gone from Playford Road in recent weeks which Jewell says is nothing unusual: "Every club has them, it’s just that they don’t get reported like ours!
"The way that football is now, there are a lot of players that are out of contract who haven’t got clubs. Michael Owen was one, Emile Heskey was another one.
"The word trialist makes it sound as if you’re desperate. Sometimes we’ll just have a look at these lads in training for a week. It doesn’t cost us anything, it doesn’t do us any harm. We can assess their fitness, see where they’re up to and you might get one that works for you.
"You don’t want to just be taking anyone willy-nilly. We obviously know a bit about Rocha and Meite. Sometimes you’re looking at them to see what shape they’re in fitness-wise.”