BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
ZIMBABWEAN defender Brendan Galloway is set to be rewarded with a new long term deal at English League One club Plymouth Argyle following his impressive start to life at the promotion chasing club.
The 25-year-old former England youth international has featured in all, but one of Plymouth Argyle’s matches this season after joining the club on a short term contract until January.
Galloway has transformed himself from an injury prone player who was struggling to find a club to a key figure in the Plymouth Argyle team, lining up on the left side of central defence.
The Harare-born defender has managed to keep out Macaulay Gillesphey, another Plymouth close season recruit, who has been on the bench.
In fact Galloway has already made more league starts for Argyle than he did at four of his previous five clubs — MK Dons, West Bromwich Albion and Sunderland (both on loan) and Luton Town, where he struggled due to injury problems.
The one exception is Everton, for whom he made 16 starts and one substitute appearance in the Premier League.
Galloway played only six times during two seasons at Luton, in part due to a serious knee-term injury, which was a factor in him being offered a short-term deal at his current club.
Plymouth Argyle manager Ryan Lowe, who made a gamble by signing the Zimbabwean player despite his injury record, says he has been impressed by his contribution so far and hinted that he is on course to get a new long term contract.
“He’s doing fantastic, he’s enjoying himself, and he’s playing games which is the most important thing for him,” Lowe said.
“Brendan won’t be worried about anything else, but playing games and that’s what we want from him. He’s doing great.
“We know where we are with Brendan; he knows where we are with him. There’s nothing to tell you at the moment because there is no real need to.
“He’s just focused on football, so are we. But, trust me; it will take a lot for him to leave this football club now for what we have done for him and what he’s doing for us.
“That’s the mutual conversation we had from day one. ‘You do good by me and I will do good by you’. He knows that, he understands that.
“I don’t want any distractions with him. He’s a level-headed lad and the most important thing for Brendan is to keep playing games like he’s doing, and keep playing well, and everything else will take care of itself.”
Galloway made his eighth appearance of the season for Argyle as they continued their good start to the season with a one-all draw against Doncaster.
He will be hoping to finally make his Warriors debut in the back to back World Cup qualifiers against Ghana next month after missing the opening two rounds of the qualifiers due to the stringent Covid-19 imposed by the British government for individuals returning from countries classified as red listed.