DONEGAL manager Jim McGuinness says he hasn’t made his mind up yet about staying on in the position – insisting his side were hampered in its preparations for this year’s title defence.
Speaking on the BBC today where he was part of the panel for the Tyrone v Mayo All-Ireland SFC semi-final clash, the Glenties man confirmed he met with his players in Letterkenny on Saturday but that no decisions had been taken.
The players gave him their full backing at that meeting.
“I haven’t decided yet to be honest,” he said when asked if he was staying on.
“I suppose at the end of every year, we do an analysis of everything – players, medical, staff and so forth. That hasn’t been finalised yet.
“I don’t want to be Donegal manager for the sake of being Donegal manager. I want to be there for the right reasons and also for every system to be in place to be successful.”
He went on: “I’m still thinking things through. I think it’s very important to do that.
“As I said earlier, all the systems have to be in place. The biggest thing for me is to be able to prepare the team properly and I don’t think we got that opportunity this year in some levels. So that’s one of the issues we’ll be looking at and there’s also a few other things as well.”
McGuinness refused to be drawn on some newspaper reports that he was in conflict with the county board over championship fixtures and injuries caused to key players in the run-up to key games.
“Regarding the issues over team preparation, it’s something which I raised with the County Board yesterday and spoke about with the players. We’ll see what happens,” said Jim.
“If the conditions are correct then you feel you can do your job…but I don’t want to be there for the sake of being there,” he added.
Fellow pundit Martin McHugh, on the same BBC show, urged McGuinness to stay on
Son Mark told NewsTalk Radio: “We never questioned the relationship between ourselves and Jim. We’re fully behind him and we’re hoping that he will commit for another year. It is tough for him going over and back with Celtic but I’m sure he’ll be thinking about it over the coming days and weeks.”
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