Fantastic news as captain pens a new deal

DUNDALK received a huge pre-Christmas boost when both captain Stephen O’Donnell and full back Sean Gannon signed new contracts to remain at Oriel Park next season.

Both players had been linked with moves away from the champions with Shamrock Rovers amongst the sides circulating having already taken midfielder Ronan Finn away from the Lilywhites.

However, having penned new deals both players said there was nowhere they would rather be and immediately set their targets on four league titles in-a-row in 2017.

O’Donnell, who is entering into his fifth season with the club, has signed a new two year deal and he said he was ‘delighted to stay’.

He said: ‘I am really looking forward to getting going again next season. I can’t wait for it all to start again.

‘The season just gone is all in the past now. It’s over with and we did have a good adventure. There’s no denying that but we have to focus on next season now.

‘It’s something that we want to try and do again. We want to do even better next season than we did this year. It was a great experience this year but the focus is to make sure we get the same experience next year.’

And despite seeing the likes of Daryl Horgan, Andy Boyle, Ronan Finn and Darren Meenan departing, O’Donnell believes Dundalk are still the team to beat.

‘We have lost a couple of players but them leaving is yesterday’s news. We have to focus on ourselves going forward and what we can do.

‘Like the three-in-a-row was, our aim now is to go for the fourth. We want to keep our league title. It’s the most important to us. Our goal is to win the league, it’s our main priority and next year is no different.

‘We are under no illusions and it is going to be very tough, we know that. People seem to be writing us off already after losing the players but we aren’t worried. There will be a rejuvenated hunger in the squad don’t worry.

‘There’ll be a huge motivation in the players still here and those coming in to prove everyone wrong yet again to show that the bigger machine can cope.’

Meanwhile, Gannon – who is entering into his fourth season at Oriel Park – wants both another league title and another European adventure, only this time in the Champions League.

‘We have a new challenge now and that is to go one better than we did this year. The European run in the Europa League Group Stages was amazing and I am happy to be back and play with these players again.

‘For the club, for the players and for the supporters it is brilliant to be a part of the European nights and to have an extended run this year by getting to the groups it is what we all strive to do and improve.

‘We want to do what we did last year again. We want to compete in the Champions League. It was such a history making year. We had a taste of how things are at that level and we want to go for it again. We want to have more of the nights that we had.

‘I am very hungry to get back to those great nights again. We have had a few of them in the last few years and the challenge is there for the four leagues in a row. It’s a massive motivation for us.

‘We are the holders of the league title and we don’t want to give it up!’