Sean Roughan Contract Update Given

An update emerged this morning regarding Sean Roughan’s contract situation but it didn’t really give us a definitive answer to if the young defender will be part of the squad as we prepare for a fifth consecutive League One campaign.

Sean spoke in length to the Irish Independent recently about his professional career so far, and importantly for us, his ongoing contract situation. Sean’s current deal expires on the 30th of June and the club have offered him an extension. Sean first and foremost showed his gratitude to Lincoln City and in particular Mark Kennedy for putting trust in him after his loan spell at Drogheda.

He spoke about where he played throughout the year, claiming he would have preferred to play in centre-half, which I totally agree with. His qualities suit the back-three, but with the calibre of defenders we had last season, it wasn’t easy to give him a chance there. This season that will be a bit different in comparison, Lewis Montsma is injured for pretty much the whole season, and Regan Poole has departed the club, there will be opportunities for Sean to nail a spot in the back three if he stays, and I’d like to see that happen.

“I can’t thank Lincoln enough for what they’ve done for me, putting trust in me after coming back from Drogheda and to the manager for playing me in different positions. I would have liked to play more at centre-back (he was often used at left wing-back) but when you’re keeping clean sheets, you can’t mess up the back three.

He is clearly keeping his options open, and who wouldn’t? He’s 19 with plenty of senior football under his belt and will definitely have interest from the Premier League and the Championship. He’s made it very clear that he’s happy to stay at the club, but he also said there could be something better out there. I can see people taking this the wrong way, but the way I read it, it’s no disrespect to the club at all, it’s true. There will be better out there than what we can offer him, in terms of salary, facilities and coaching but I think he has a platform at Lincoln to grow even more and develop with regular gametime and a manager that rates him extremely highly.

“I really enjoyed my time at Lincoln and now it comes down to whatever happens in the next couple of weeks. I trust the people who deal with it. My mam (Charlotte) would be pretty invested in it, she knows what’s best for me. I’d be happy to stay at Lincoln but if anything was to happen in the meantime, that’s my choice. There could be something better out there.

“A football career isn’t long. The average is ten years so you have to make the most of it. I’m going into my fourth year now. I’ve come up against some very good players who have gone to the Premier League or high in the Championship. League One is a very tough league, but you have to aspire to go higher.”

We’ll have to wait and see what happens with Sean’s future, I’d love him to stay. He’s got a high ceiling and if we can have even another year of his football journey, then I think we’d be lucky. If he decides to move on and head to the Championship, then I’d be fully respectful of that decision from a footballing point of view. Sean will have a lot to weigh up in the next few weeks and I wish him all the luck in the future, I just hope that future will be me watching him at Sincil Bank next season.