McGuinness won’t take Mayo job
FORMER Donegal manager Jim McGuinness has ruled himself out of the running to succeed Stephen Rochford at the Mayo helm, saying he is actively looking for a post in soccer management. The 2012 All-Ireland winning manager had been linked with the post following Rochford’s surprise resignation last Monday, but speaking at Off The Ball’s AllIreland final roadshow in Croke Park last night, McGuinness insisted that his next coaching job will be in soccer. ‘I’m not interested in getting back into the GAA at the minute, definitely not,’ said McGuinness, who recently completed his UEFA ‘A’ coaching badges. ‘It has been a long journey of development that I have been on. I have dedicated the last six years of my life to it and now I want to get involved with a team to see if I can do it.’ McGuinness joined the Celtic coaching staff on a part-time basis in the winter of 2012, after Donegal’s AllIreland win, and worked with youth teams at Parkhead before joining former Bayer Leverkusen manager Roger Schmidt at Beijing Sinobo Guoan in the Chinese Super League last year. He left his job as Schmidt’s assistant in January, looking for a role in Europe. ‘I’m ready to take a
managerial position in soccer. It has to be in professional sports and it has to be a senior team — the most important thing is not getting a club, it is about getting the right club.’ McGuinness mentioned that he had spoken to a lot of different clubs and coaches as part of his journey and that he regularly talks to Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers, who has emphasised to him the importance of finding a club that is right for him. On the same panel, former Mayo boss James Horan didn’t rule himself out of succeeding Rochford and admitted he would like to return to the post at some stage but he remained unsure of whether the timing was righ. ‘Is the time right for me, is it right for the county board [to come back] I don’t know if it is,’ Horan said. ‘There’s so much stuff… At the moment, I would [say] for me, personally, no. I’ve so much stuff going on.’ However he didn’t rule out a return at some point in the future. ‘I’m a Mayo man that absolutely loves Mayo football and I really love coaching guys that are ambitious for teams to do well, that’s what I love doing,’ he said, explaining that he is quite happy to be coaching an ambitious, young Westport side at present.