O’Flynn needs to decide what he wants, says Kee

The striker, who netted 13 goals last season during his time at the Riverside Stadium, has been linked strongly with a move to fellow North West side Coleraine.

Despite the talk about a possible move to the Showgrounds, Kee still harbours hopes of the Cork native joining. But he wants an answer from O’Flynn sooner rather than later.

“Oran (Kearney) has rung me out of courtesy about Stephen. We know that he has been speaking to Coleraine, but I’m hoping to meet him over the next few days,” said Kee.

“It’s up to Stephen and if he wants to stay then happy days, but he knows the rules. We have a low budget and I’m sure he might be looking to get a deal for himself, but I’m not too sure what he can do.

“If he wants to come and play for us great, but if he doesn’t and he fancies Coleraine then that’s fine. But we are in our second week of pre-season training and he hasn’t been near the place, so we need to know one way or another sooner rather than later.

“He made a significant contribution last year for us and I think the club was good for him in terms of that he was between a rock and a hard place. He couldn’t sign professional, we were an amateur club and we gave him an opportunity to play at a decent level.

“He came into a very successful team, who were at a very high place at the time because we were up around the top of the league and while he did contribute with goals we also had other players who scored goals.”

Kee also confirmed that Gary Henderson looks to have decided to leave the club, because after numerous attempts from himself and other coaching staff members they have failed to get in contact with the midfielder.

“I have been trying to get in contact with him. I have texted and rang him but I have been unable to get in contact with him, John Cunningham, Brian Donaghy and Billy Carlin have also tried to get him but they too have been unable to get him.

“Other than going to his house he has thwarted our attempts to contact him, which has been disappointing because he’s a good young player. We need people who are going to commit to this club and if he’s not committed then he might be better playing elsewhere.”

The Drumahoe side will field two sides as they play their first pre-season friendly games this Saturday.

Both squads will feature players from the first team, reserve and U19 squads in the matches against Oxford United Stars and Newtowne.

The match against Oxford will be staged at Wilton Park, while the game against the Limavady men, will take place at Scroggy Road’s 3G pitch and both matches start at 3pm.

At the minute Stute’s pre-season friendly schedule is as follows: Wednesday July 16 - Letterkenny Rovers (A KO 7pm); Saturday July 19 - Limavady United (A KO 2pm); Saturday July 26 - Portstewart (A KO 3pm) and Glebe Rangers (H KO 2pm). Kee also confirmed that he hopes to arrange friendlies against Airtricity League of Ireland Premier Division sides Derry City, Dundalk and Sligo Rovers, but he has to wait and see how those teams do in Europe.