Welcome Eoghan O’Connell

There was rumours of a couple of not so familiar faces at the first day of training at Sparrows Lane today. Eoghan O’Connell wasn’t one of them, but the club announced the Rochdale captain as a new signing this evening.

The 26-year old Cork-born ball playing centre-half is the Addicks first summer signing hopefully signalling some further activity this week.

Eoghan (pronounced Oh-un) moved to Celtic’s academy in 2011 from home in the south-west of Ireland where he made 13 appearances under Brendan Rogers including Champions League matches. From there he moved to Bury in 2018 where under Ryan Lowe he played 31 games as they finished second in L2 to win promotion.

O’Connell signed a two-year deal with Rochdale in July 2019 and extended his stay by a further 12 months last summer making 130 appearances in total. He made 50 first team appearances for Dale last season alone.

O’Connell likes to play with the ball at his feet and last season made the second-most completed passes in L2 and appears well respected by Dale fans.

The Irishman has signed a three-year deal and was a free transfer after turning down a new contract at Rochdale.

Welcome Eoghan.