'I want to stay in England for as long as I can,' - insists ex-Derry City man Stephen McLaughlin

The 29-year-old is currently focused on his next contract in England and says he wants to play for as long as he can but refused to rule out coming back to work in the family business, McLaughlin Coach Hire, in Donegal at some stage.

“At the minute I don’t really know,” states the Southend winger. “Me and my wife (Shauna) talk about this all the time, but I want to see where the football takes me. I want to keep playing for as long as I can but whenever the day comes that I don’t get a contract offer here in England then, yeah, I’ll definitely go home to the hills again.

“I want to stay in England for as long as I can and then see where that takes me. If I don’t get that contract then I’ll just go home and then see what happens.

“When I finish my career I’m definitely going to have to work because playing in League One isn’t great money. It’s good money but it’s not ‘retirement’ money and to be honest, I’m kind of looking forward to working when I go home.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do but my dad owns the bus business and I’m more than happy to go back home and jump on a bus and work with my two brothers and my Dad. That’s family and there’s nothing better than that. As for football, I might stay in the game in some capacity, maybe, but I just have to see and I don’t really want to be thinking about it at the minute.

“However I know that times ticking on and I will need to start thinking about that at some stage.”

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