Orr travels but Hartley left behind

City may have left for their pre-season camp in Sweden today but Paul Hartley has been left behind.

With speculation mounting over a return to Scotland in recent weeks, manager Steve Coppell revealed Hartley did not travel with the rest of the squad for the week-long trip to Scandinavia.

“I’ve had a number of chats with Paul,” Coppell told bcfc.co.uk. “His family are up in the Scotland and he was back and forth to see them all last season.

“He is homesick and in an ideal world he’d be playing his football in Scotland – that’s his point of view and I respect that.”

More encouragingly it seems that right-back Bradley Orr has put rumours linking him with a move to QPR behind him for the time being as he was included in the 21-man travelling party.

There was also a surprise place in the squad for Irish striker John O’Flynn, who is out-of-contract with Barnet and has been training with us since the players returned for pre-season training two weeks ago.

Coppell said: “John’s been around for a little while. I watched him at the same time I was looking at Kevin Doyle and Shane Long.

“He’s a good finisher and has scored goals at Barnet consistently. This is an opportunity for him and it’s nice to have people around the squad who are hungry. He wants a chance.”

City kick-off their three-game tour with a game against former UEFA Cup champions IFK Gothenburg tomorrow evening.