Owen Garvan’s Ipswich Town nightmare is finally over.
Classy midfielder Garvan, who failed to hold down a regular place in Roy Keane’s side, yesterday completed his move to Championship rivals Crystal Palace for a �225,000 fee.
And the 22-year-old Irishman has admitted that his final year or so at Portman Road was not a particularly happy one – he was in and out of the team last season, despite Town’s plight in the lower half of the Championship table, starting less than a third of the games.
Not surprisingly, then, he is just relieved to wipe the slate clean and start a new stage of his career under former Town boss George Burley at Selhurst Park.
The former Republic of Ireland under-21 international bagged seven goals during the 2008-09 season, despite his struggle for consistency. He was also voted the Irish “Young Player of the Year.”
But he never really got going last term, under new boss Keane.
Garvan said: “Hopefully this season I can play a bit more football. That is what I want to do and hopefully everything goes well for me and the club.
“As a footballer I just want to play games and I am thankful to the manager (Burley) for giving me this opportunity.
“He just tried to sell the club to me and the main thing is he said that I would get more game-time here than you would at Ipswich.
“I could not wait around at Ipswich any longer as last season I was on the bench and getting frustrated, and hopefully a new challenge will be good for me.”
Burley has been a busy man since he was appointed to the Palace hot seat on June 17.
Garvan was his fifth signing of the summer, following in the footsteps of former Town team-mates David Wright (released this summer) and Lewis Price, as well as Andy Dorman and Adam Barrett.
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