Former Portsmouth defender joins new club after possible Fratton Park return dashed
A former Portsmouth League One title winner has confirmed he has joined a new club.
Former Portsmouth defender Enda Stevens has officially joined League of Ireland club Shamrock Rovers.
As revealed by The News earlier this month, Pompey considered making a move for their former League Two winner as John Mousinho’s defensive options were limited by a number of injuries. However, a move failed to come to fruition as the Pompey boss explained the reasoning behind his decision to pause the hunt for a new defensive option until the January transfer window.
He said: ‘It’s a really difficult one for anyone out of contract at this stage of the season. They’ve not signed for a club and most likely missed the last six months of football, even if they’ve been training with a club or doing a bit here and there.
“A player who comes in it will take four to six weeks for them to get up to the level. We saw that last season when Alex (Milosevic) came in January and he struggled physically to get into the swing of things. With that, we’d be looking at the start of January by which point we’d be able to bring some in either as a permanent or loan - or we could reassess Faz’s situation or see where Connor is.”
Stevens was strongly linked with a move to Shamrock Rovers after he became a free agent following his release from Stoke City and he has now officially put pen-to-paper on a deal with the League of Ireland club. His new manager has already given an insight the important role the former Pompey man will play within his squad after revealing the defender had a longstanding relationship with his new club.
Rovers manager Stephen Bradley told the club website: “Yes we are absolutely delighted. Enda has been training with us for the last few weeks, he’s someone who’s had a brilliant career at a really high level. He will bring that know-how and quality to the group which is really important.
“We’ve always stayed in touch. I played with Enda also. Any time he’s been home from England, he has come in and been around the group, done bits of training with us and used the training ground. So we’ve always had that sort of relationship and when I knew Enda and his family wanted to move home, it was a natural progression to try and get him to Rovers. He’s been in training the last five or six weeks and we’re delighted to get it done.”