ACCRINGTON Stanley boss John Coleman says he is aiming to hold talks with David Dunn this week about a move to the Reds.

The Blackburn Rovers midfielder has announced that he will end his 27-year association with his boyhood club at the end of the season.

Dunn is likely to make his final appearance in the blue and white halves in tomorrow’s home game with Ipswich Town.

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But he is not yet ready to retire from the game, and in an interview about his Ewood Park exit spoke of his ambition to play for Stanley, his second club, before he hangs up his boots.

That could happen as early as next season, with Coleman open to discussions with the one-cap England international, with a view to offering Dunn a player-coach role.

“We are hoping to speak to him this week,” said the Reds manager.

“David’s made no secret of the fact he would love to finish his career at Accrington.

“Whether we can eek longer than a year out of him and get a couple of years up of him it would be great for us.

“He’s still a fantastic footballer, a great lad as well, and I think his presence around the ground and around the team, it wouldn’t just give the fans a lift.

“It could act like a couple of catalysts we’ve had in the past, Mike Marsh for one. He came in as a player and really galvanised us and got the players believing in us as a team. Paul Cook did pretty much the same job.

“Obviously it would give him (Dunn) a great step into management and we would take him onto the coaching staff. But we’ve got to speak to him first and see how that pans out.”

Of Dunn’s announcement Coleman added: “It wasn’t a bombshell to us, we have spoken to him before about it. It hasn’t come out of the blue for us.

“We’ll see what happens.

“If it’s right for him and it’s right for us we’ll let it happen, if it’s not we’ll wish him all the best wherever he goes.”

But Coleman believes it would be beneficial for both parties.

“The good thing if he comes here is that he’s a fan,” he said.

“Not that players come here to end their careers, but players coming to the end of their careers don’t really have an affinity to a club, and he will.

“You think you’d get the very, very best out of him.

“Just knowing him as a person you’d expect that anyway, but I think even more so if it was for Accrington.

“Watch this space.”