O’Donnell set to begin negotiations with 11 out of contract Dundalk players

Stephen O’Donnell is yet to sit down with Brian Gartland, who along with ten other players, effectively became a free agent after Sunday evening’s 1-0 win at Derry City.

Gartland has been a Dundalk FC stalwart ever since joining the club from Portadown in 2013, but the 36-year-old has started just four SSE Airtricity League matches this year. 

The club captain rolled back the years with an accomplished display in last Sunday’s final game of the season, before being replaced by long-term defensive partner Andy Boyle after 80 minutes, possibly bringing down the curtain on what has been a stellar career.

“We’ll have a chat this week,” head coach O’Donnell said on Gartland’s future. “We genuinely haven’t spoken about post season with each other, so we’ll see where everyone is, where all parties are at and what Brian thinks.

“He was excellent tonight, without a doubt. He was very good. He was stepping in, reading the centre-forwards, touching, getting in front of them and using the ball really well. It’s not easy on a big pitch like that against a good team, but I thought he was very good.

“Brian’s been injured. He’s just been unlucky with injuries, but anytime he’s trained and he’s played, he’s done very well.

They are (difficult decisions). I think a lot of the lads are going off to Berlin together, which is great to be able to spend a bit of time together and just let their hair down and enjoy all their hard work.”

Fellow defenders Boyle and Darragh Leahy are also out of contract, with both players thought to be attracting valid interest from new Bohemians manager Declan Devine.

“There’ll be all sorts of speculation,” continued O’Donnell. “That’s this time of the year. We said a few weeks ago that we’d park all talk of contracts et cetera until we knew where we stand. The football was always the main bit.

“The thing with the League of Ireland is, so many players are on a one-year deal, so many players are out of contract. The way I’ve done it is, let’s get the main part out of the way, everyone sit down together individually, face-to-face the following week after the league season and that’s what we’ll do.”

One player guaranteed to be playing his football at Oriel Park next year is Patrick Hoban, who made a long-awaited return to action off the substitutes bench on Sunday.

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Dundalk’s leading goalscorer hadn’t featured since suffering a calf injury, which forced him off in the 12th minute of a 1-0 win over Bohs at Dalymount Park back in August.

On the mend, Hoban would have made a return to the squad a week earlier, had it not been for an illness which unfortunately prolonged his frustrating spell on the sidelines.

“He would’ve been back on the bench last week, but he got a virus last week, so he missed a whole week’s training. He would have been ready for the bench last week, but he missed that. He wasn’t well. He was actually ill for the whole week, so we couldn’t get any training into him.

“It’s good (to see him back). I even thought his touches when he came on, when we got it into him and that, he was very good. That will give Pat a pep in his step and give him good confidence.

“He’s not ending the season in the Bohs game and not playing again. He’s come on there for 25 minutes before the end of the season, so I thought that was important for his mentality.”