Rochdale Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Corey O’Keeffe on a permanent basis.
The full-back, who spent the first half of the season on loan at the Crown Oil Arena from Mansfield Town, has penned a deal until the end of the season.
“I’m delighted,” said O’Keeffe.
“As soon as it came about, I knew what I wanted to do, and I’m just really happy to be here. I’m delighted that it’s finally done.
“I’ve loved my time here. It’s the happiest I’ve been playing football throughout my career. I just want to keep going and be happy, and play football. That was a big thing about coming back here. I just loved it - the lads, staff, everything, so I just wanted to be back here.
“There have been some great signings this month and there’s no reason that we can’t push for the play-offs now. We’ve got a great team - let’s win games and keep going!”
Manager Robbie Stockdale added: “We’ve had to be extremely patient with this one and we’re ever so pleased to have him back the building.
“We weren’t in a position when we signed Corey in the summer to do it for a year, which we would have done. Corey has had other things on the table and we’ve just had to wait and be patient. We always knew he was going to come back to us, it was just about in what guise that was going to happen.
“So, the fact that we’ve got him for the remainder of the season is brilliant - we look at that as real positive. It works for both parties and I’m sure come the end of the season we’ll sit down and talk about his future at that time.
“It’s clear that he was a very important player for us at the start of the season and we hope he will be in the second half for us too.
“He’s another one of our main targets that we’ve been able to get in the building. The five players that we’ve signed this window are the five that we set out to get and we’ve got in, and we’re still hopeful of one more.”
O’Keeffe quickly became a fans’ favourite during his loan spell at the club, during which he made 29 appearance, scoring four goals.
Welcome back, Corey!
The deal is subject to approval from the FA and EFL.