Southend United close in on loan deals for Tamika Mkandawire and Ben Reeves

9:00am Tuesday 5th March 2013 in Sport By Chris Phillips

Tamika Mkandawire - set to train with Southend United Tamika Mkandawire - set to train with Southend United

SOUTHEND United are closing in on the loan signings of Tamika Mkandawire and Ben Reeves.

As was revealed in yesterday’s Echosport, Blues are back in discussions with Millwall in an attempt to bring Mkandawire back to Roots Hall.

And the Echo now understands that the club are hoping to bring the midfielder in to train with them for a few days this week to assess his match fitness following an injury he picked up shortly after he returned to his parent club.

Reeves, whose initial month long loan from Southampton expired before Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Rotherham United, is also still training with Blues.

The midfielder watched the game against the Millers at the weekend but Southend have opted to delay extending his loan spell in order to ensure he is available to figure in the end of the season play-offs should Blues finish in the top seven.

Reeves is only able to sign for another two months and with the play off final not until Saturday May 18, the deal may not be completed for a little while yet.

Mkandawire’s return may also be delayed until the end of this week as he can only return for another month and Blues are keen to have him available for the final of the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy.

That takes place against Crewe Alexandra at Wembley on Sunday April 7.

And Southend are confident of having both Reeves and Mkandawire available for that showdown.

Comments (6)

12:37pm Tue 5 Mar 13

smudge65 says...

Good news if we can get them both on board until the end of the season. Mkandawire (if fit) is needed in the middle especially with Timlin missing and young ben Reeves has some real skill and much needed creativity too. Typical hand to mouth existance meaning we have to wait until we can re-sign his loan agreement just to cover us until the end of the season (should we reach the play offs!). Anyway...the little man has written himself into Blues folklore with his goal against the O's!!
Good news if we can get them both on board until the end of the season. Mkandawire (if fit) is needed in the middle especially with Timlin missing and young ben Reeves has some real skill and much needed creativity too. Typical hand to mouth existance meaning we have to wait until we can re-sign his loan agreement just to cover us until the end of the season (should we reach the play offs!). Anyway...the little man has written himself into Blues folklore with his goal against the O's!! smudge65

1:21pm Tue 5 Mar 13

tophatdt says...

sounds great...with Bilen back, and hopefully a managers decision to put Eastwood in at the begiinning, then Bary Corr to be fit for the second half, rather than the other way round, ...sounds good to me!
sounds great...with Bilen back, and hopefully a managers decision to put Eastwood in at the begiinning, then Bary Corr to be fit for the second half, rather than the other way round, ...sounds good to me! tophatdt

3:42pm Tue 5 Mar 13

world_gone_wrong says...

Hopefully signing Ben and Mak will mean that there is no place for that clueless article Mohsni in the starting line-up for the rest of the season. The thought of him grinning away at us at Wembley makes my stomach churn.
Hopefully signing Ben and Mak will mean that there is no place for that clueless article Mohsni in the starting line-up for the rest of the season. The thought of him grinning away at us at Wembley makes my stomach churn. world_gone_wrong

3:52pm Tue 5 Mar 13

smudge65 says...

world_gone_wrong wrote:
Hopefully signing Ben and Mak will mean that there is no place for that clueless article Mohsni in the starting line-up for the rest of the season. The thought of him grinning away at us at Wembley makes my stomach churn.
The Mohsni debate will rumble on and there's valid arguments on both sides. IF PS was going to play him on Saturday, I would have rather seen him at centre back, with Prosser moving to the left. That would have given Corr or Freddy a chance up front.......cannot understand bringing them on so late, especially Freddy.....89th minute was it? By Prosser moving over it would have meant putting Straker out of his misery. The guy has no confidence at all and there is an air of tension every time he gets the ball......and then a load of abuse when he invariably gives it away!
[quote][p][bold]world_gone_wrong[/bold] wrote: Hopefully signing Ben and Mak will mean that there is no place for that clueless article Mohsni in the starting line-up for the rest of the season. The thought of him grinning away at us at Wembley makes my stomach churn.[/p][/quote]The Mohsni debate will rumble on and there's valid arguments on both sides. IF PS was going to play him on Saturday, I would have rather seen him at centre back, with Prosser moving to the left. That would have given Corr or Freddy a chance up front.......cannot understand bringing them on so late, especially Freddy.....89th minute was it? By Prosser moving over it would have meant putting Straker out of his misery. The guy has no confidence at all and there is an air of tension every time he gets the ball......and then a load of abuse when he invariably gives it away! smudge65

6:41pm Tue 5 Mar 13

gary 51 says...

Straker is not the worst player out there I can name a good half dozen who should be shown the door. Loan signings, good but too late I am afraid
Straker is not the worst player out there I can name a good half dozen who should be shown the door. Loan signings, good but too late I am afraid gary 51

8:56pm Tue 5 Mar 13

Techy - SOL says...

Tamika Mkandiwire would be a great bit of business. We had a very decent run of results with him covering the defensive midfield areas. Having Ben Reeves with us until the end of the season would be great too.

However, it's worrying that we are keen to get out of League One, but we don't have our own squad of players to take us forward?

All we seem to be doing these days, is robbing Peter to pay Paul & living (supposedly) beyond our means. Our costs will be higher if promoted but will our attendances improve sufficiently to sustain the club or will we struggle to make ends meet like now, which inherently makes promotion pointless!
Tamika Mkandiwire would be a great bit of business. We had a very decent run of results with him covering the defensive midfield areas. Having Ben Reeves with us until the end of the season would be great too. However, it's worrying that we are keen to get out of League One, but we don't have our own squad of players to take us forward? All we seem to be doing these days, is robbing Peter to pay Paul & living (supposedly) beyond our means. Our costs will be higher if promoted but will our attendances improve sufficiently to sustain the club or will we struggle to make ends meet like now, which inherently makes promotion pointless! Techy - SOL
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