The 24 year-old Harding would love to stay in south-east Essex and help Southend get back to into the play-off positions but he's well aware the present arrangement has only three weeks to run.
Confirming this to the Southend Evening Echo he said: "I've had talks about my future with the manager here and he knows what I want. Personally I would like to stay at Southend because I'm playing games and enjoying myself. I want to repay the faith the manager has shown in me too and help Southend achieve something this season. It's out of my hands a bit though to be honest and it's now a matter of the two clubs having to sort something out between them. Ipswich will have a big say on my future and we will have to wait and see what happens."
The priority though is the match against Huddersfield at the weekend and remaining fully focused on securing a much needed win this weekend.
Southend have taken just three points from the last 15 on offer but Harding remains confident of soon putting things right continuing: "I think we've just been going through a bit of a blip. The last few games have been a little bit disappointing but on a positive note we haven't been losing many matches. I think we've been beaten in three of our last 17 matches but now we want to be getting more wins to close the gap on the teams above us."
Playing in a back five that has had so many defensive lapses since he joined Harding has stood head and shoulders above the rest with his obvious abilty and cool composure on the ball.
I'm sure the mangement team will do all they can to keep Dan at the club if only, for now, extending the present loan deal to the end of the season.