Galway United boss Keegan uncertain of future after Westerners relegated

SHANE Keegan believes Galway United have every chance of making an immediate return to the Premier Division – and he wants to be the man to lead them back to the top-flight.

He was handed a two-year contract when he was appointed as United manager at the end of last season, but admits that there were certain targets written into that contract, so he is waiting to sit down with the handful of people running the club to discuss the season just gone, and plans for the future.

“It was a two-year contract, and there would have been certain aims and that attached to the first year that would have to have been in place for the second year to automatically kick-in. I am not automatically saying I am getting the bullet; I am not automatically saying I’ll be here – we need to sit down and have a conservation,” he said.

One thing he says is certain that there will be between six and eight players that will be snapped up by Premier Division clubs – every player was on a one-year contract with United, which ran out on the final whistle on Friday night.

“We had 19 adult players signed this season – that is, players over the age of 19, I think we will lose somewhere between six and eight of those.

“That’s fair enough, that is what happens in soccer, it is pretty much what happens to any club that goes down. But if we can hold on to 11, 12, 13 of that squad – I was in the First Division for four years, I know what is required to win the First Division and I think if we can hold on to that number of players, we won’t be far off winning it,” Keegan insisted on Friday night.

He says he has enjoyed his year at United, insisting that “this has been probably the best year of my life” despite the season ending in relegation, and that if given the chance, he is relishing he chance to win promotion at the first time of asking.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.