Blues boss Paul Jewell has revealed that ex-FC Köln central defender Kevin Pezzoni has been on trial at Playford Road for the last three days. The Town manager has spent the international week searching for central defensive recruits but confirmed that no one will be joining the club before Saturday’s game at Middlesbrough with former trialist Bilel Mohsni definitely not signing.

Jewell said: “Like always, we’re trying to improve the squad. We know we need another centre-half to come in and provide cover for the two we’ve got.

“We had Bilel Mohsni from Southend, we asked him to stay for another week but he decided against it and has gone back to Paris.

“We’ve had Kevin Pezzoni training with us from Köln for three days this week. It’s an area that we need to improve and we’re aware of that and we haven’t been successful as yet.

“He’s been training with us since Tuesday. He’s a free agent, we’ve had a look at him this week, I’ve spoken to his father and I’ll be speaking to his agent and let him know the decision.”

Frankfurt-born Pezzoni played youth football with RM Walldorf, SV Darmstadt 98 and Eintracht Frankfurt before joining the Blackburn Rovers academy.

The 23-year-old 6ft 5in tall centre-half or midfielder, capped at U19, U20 and U21 levels by Germany, moved to his most recent club in January 2008 but had his contract ripped up recently after he received threats from fans of his own club online, then was attacked at a funfair and threatened at his home.

His former coach Holger Stanislawski admitted that the defender had to move on: "Things have happened that prevented Kevin from playing football at this club."

Speaking earlier this week, Pezzoni was critical of his old club: "I never wanted to cancel my contract. A proposal was put forward to me by the club.

"What else could I have expected? My situation was not going to get any better.

"Who knows if after the next bad game these guys would have suddenly appeared in my apartment rather than just outside it.

"A club is supposed to protect its players and supporters, but this was not the case."

Having had his contract terminated before the transfer window closed, Pezzoni, who has recently been linked with Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Celtic, could sign and play now.

Jewell says the situation with Mohsni is now at a close with the Shrimpers but not the player willing to allow the Blues to take an extended look, although with no fee having been offered: “Southend agreed he could come and train with us for a week and play for the U21s last week.

“We wanted to see a bit more because we felt he hadn’t been tested and he wasn’t prepared to do that. Southend were, but the lad wasn’t and I think he’s gone back to Paris. That's over now.”

Jewell confirmed that, as we reported earlier in the week, the George Boyd situation is on the back burner while the central defensive additions are resolved: “Barry Fry came on the phone to me last week and asked me about George Boyd because I’d made comments in the press about him.

“I was only answering a question after either George’s agent or the Peterborough end had let it out that there might be a loan situation. There might well be, but it’s not our priority at the moment.”

Town have confirmed that French midfielder Cheick Kourouma’s move will go through although paperwork from Italy is still to be received.

Photo: Action Images

wokingblue added 14:56 - Sep 13 FC Koln fans out of control. Read this article http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature/_/id/1156182/uersfeld:-a-story-of-shattered Sounds like a good player who's the victim of moron fans. Villa and Middlesborough also interested!!
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tractorblue added 14:58 - Sep 13 Lies,Lies and more Lies,we will add to squad from the loan market,we know we are short on defenders,Paul Jewll needs to go and now.
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hadleighboyblue added 15:13 - Sep 13 get the feeling that the southend player could have been trouble , so no great loss , but it's pathetic that we still haven't signed a central defender . apart from injuries , there's the chance that smith or chambers could get sent off - to let delaney go without getting someone in was madness , we've had long enough to get this sorted
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irishtim added 15:23 - Sep 13 Bloody hell. People get excited when we r linked with a player we dont know much about. Its a disgrace that we are in this situtation. Its been years since we have been solid at the back. I for one a wee bit pi..ed with our management.
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bluemingood added 15:26 - Sep 13 If we sign him will the Germans finally invade? Clear out the bunkers.
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GermanTractorBoy added 15:29 - Sep 13 @wokingblue Pezzoni is definately NOT a good player and there are only a few moron fans at Köln, which is embarrissing enough for me - especially as a Köln fan. Even some details in the article are not correct. The carnival incident had nothing to do with him as a footballer, there was a private thing behind that. Due to his clumsy playing style and his many costly mistakes over the last few seasons he wasn´t a fans favourite. His last games were absolutely terrible. That of course is no reason to treat him like those stupid hooligans did.

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Sindre94 added 15:38 - Sep 13 Hes decent in the air and would fit the NPC-bill in my opinion. Ive seen him and Cologne play and I think hes alright at THIS level, not quality in the german league but would do a job here. I think i said quality just cause we were linked with someone, its been a while, haha
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flyingdutchman added 15:40 - Sep 13 jewell your a compulsive liar just f off
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alfromcol added 15:44 - Sep 13 flyingdutchman no one can take you seriously in that tee shirt!
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irishtim added 15:45 - Sep 13 @Sindre94. Done get carried away. We need Quality not just anyone.
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Scribble added 15:45 - Sep 13 German tractor boy I'm a bit disappointed I thought you could give us a bit more of an idea about this guy, I don't care if he's not good enough for cologne, I only care if hes good enough for itfc, hes not going to come up against many mario gomez's or huntelaars at town is he so how about you forget about cologne and speak as a town fan
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truthhurts added 15:51 - Sep 13 When does the loan window shut? Would safely assume the international week has gone some way towards lack of movements...
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Kesgraveblue57 added 15:52 - Sep 13 Surely this comes as no surprise to any Town supporter, I've said it before what comes from Portman Rd, it is nothing but hype when it comes to getting players into the club !
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RetroBlue added 15:53 - Sep 13 This Club looks increasingly incapable of finding decent , no, lets make that ANY defenders capable of of joining this Club. I also not that Jewell only ever speaks of getting ONE CB in... making a grand total of THREE CB's in the squad, assuming we could even sign this much needed defender. FFS you'd hardly call Chambers: Smith unbeatable in terms of quality would you. Just the the hell is going on at Portman Rd these days?? What an utter joke this whole situation has become. Its not like the defensive "issue" is a new one to solve . You only have to look at our annual "goals against col" to see that!

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BLUEBEAT added 15:57 - Sep 13 He has a German hairstyle
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Kesgraveblue57 added 15:58 - Sep 13 Retroblue you are so right
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oldbri added 16:05 - Sep 13 Sindre94 ,I agree with you.A very good player.Captain of Germanys under 19s at the age of 18. By the way,for those asking about this player and why he left.A big clue is the link in the article.was attacked at a funfair and threatened at his home. if you click on this link all will be revealed.
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casanovacrow added 16:13 - Sep 13 Maybe if Jewell told Mohsni he's need him here 2 weeks at the start he wouldn't have wasted his time or the players. As for this guy, you gotta be doing sumin wrong to get a beating from your own fans :-| No player deserves a beating but still must mean they don't rate the guy much :-|
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Keaneish added 16:14 - Sep 13 Wow! Really, on every level, wow! We're left with a big time charlie who turned down a second week trial and a defender who's had threats and been attacked at the age of 23.....!! ...and we let Delaney go. Didn't Jewell say the problem would be resolved by now and that Huddersfield was only one game? Now it's two.... BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! This is rapidly becoming a complete farce and is on the brink of melt down!!! All that hard work pre-season for what? Not ot have a defence!!!? What is going on?

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PauloJulio added 16:26 - Sep 13 He is a defensive midfielder mainly but can fill in as a centre half. He spent 5 years at Blackburn Rovers academy so knows English football. This article below states he is highly rated http://allafrica.com/stories/201205251005.html
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BoredWithThisNow added 16:29 - Sep 13 What a bag of sh!te
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BoomDog added 16:52 - Sep 13 oh dear!!!!!
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Edmunds5 added 17:12 - Sep 13 I dont think there is much a manager can do if a player (mohsni) thinks they're Messi, and to be honest I dont want a big time Charlie at our club, so I can sympathise with PJ in that way. However we've had all of pre season too weigh up targets, we should have been trying too get players in early June/July and assessed trialists then when their were more around. I know we got Hewitt which was good and Chambers came in later but we didn't give ourselves a chance and now all of a sudden we're panicking, I know players dont grow on trees but Graham Westley knew needed players and he got 12 free agents by the start of pre season training, whilst we didn't need an influx of players we knew we needed to strengthen our back line, particularly at centre half and we have bought one player there. PJ said he had been working all summer to get people in but I just don't believe that because we're not a rubbish club, and we can't be so much of a turn off. It's the ambition of the board and manager that I would question, the management team don't seem like they can sell the club to players, either that or it's for financial reasons such as wages ect.., not every player has Mohsni's attitude so why are we struggling so badly?...

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runningout added 17:19 - Sep 13 not sure where Paul Jewell and our so called scouts have been looking for a CB.. Delaney should have moved on last year.. If we get a clean sheet at Boro I will eat my hand.. should we, I hope amongst hope the guys dont think it's all rosey : /
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walberswick added 17:22 - Sep 13 i thought everyone thought moshini was the answer?
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