Eoghan (pronounced "Owen") O'Connell is Charlton's first signing of the window and is a twenty six year old "ball-playing centre back" who has joined on a three year contract after his contract at Rochdale expired.
He had been at Rochdale for three seasons and, as well as being team captain last season, was also voted players' and fans' Player of the Season. He only missed one League game and he played in 50 games in all having made 70 League appearances in the previous two campaigns. He didn't play in the infamous 4-4 draw at The Valley in January 2021.
In 2018/19 he was an integral part of Bury's League Two promotion winning team.
He was born in Cork but left as a nineteen year old in 2014 to join Celtic where he made seven SPL appearances over four seasons. His manager Brendan Rogers said he had "in-built brain for the game." He was a 68th minute substitute in Celtic's 7-0 defeat by Barcelona at The Nou Camp in September 2016 in front of a crowd of over 73,000. In fairness to Eoghan, the score was already 5-0 when he came on.
On joining Charlton he said "I had a good conversation with the Manager about the way he wants to play and it really suits me. I like to try and play out from the back and get the team attacking, as well as defending."
Ben Garner commented: “Eoghan’s a player that I’ve admired for a long time and it was nice that when I came in he also featured high on the club’s recruitment list. In possession he’s fantastic, he’s very intelligent, comfortable receiving the ball, very brave, which is a big quality, and he has a fantastic range of pass. In addition to that, he’s also a great defender."
The full story from the CAFC website: