July 14 2011

Owen Garvan

Crystal Palace midfielder OWEN GARVAN has turned down a move to Brighton.

Palace reportedly accepted a bid of £300,000 for the Irishman who has fallen out of favour at the club and GARVAN was given permission to speak to the Seagulls.

But GARVAN did not meet with Brighton officials and told Eagles boss Dougie Freedman he wanted to stay at Selhurst Park and fight for his place in the side.

"We accepted an offer from Brighton but OWEN has rejected that move," Freedman said. "He told me he wants to stay here, work hard and try and get in the team so fair play to him.

"He's not a player I want to lose. But we just felt with the options we've got available the offer was the right one for the club.

"We have KG, Mile, Alex Marrow, Wrighty (David Wright) who can slot in there as well so we've got lots of options.

"But I've said all along I want players who want to play for Crystal Palace and OWEN is displaying that. He's been impressed by our summer signings and he wants to stay."

Meanwhile, Palace have snapped up England U18's 16-year-old goalkeeper Thomas Fry from Portsmouth.