Angry Horan denies claims of backroom unrest in Mayo

JAMES Horan has described as ‘incredible’ the ‘amount of untruths’ that have surrounded the Mayo team and management in the wake of the All-Ireland senior football final defeat by Tyrone last September.

Speaking on the Tommy Marren Show on Midwest Radio yesterday, Horan (right) refuted any suggestion of a disagreement with his selectors Ciaran McDonald and James Burke.

Social media has facilitated a level of ugly, personal criticism and unfounded speculation that has clearly angered the Mayo manager in the wake of what was another crushing final defeat, continuing the county’s search for a first Sam Maguire Cup success since 1951.

And that speculation included a supposed split in the management team.

‘I didn’t realise this was happening but a couple of my mates highlighted it to me. I find it incredible, the amount of untruths that were published on this is just phenomenal. Ciarán Mac, James Burke and myself have been working over the last few weeks to plot and plan for the new season and that’s really where we need to be. So, the stories generated are actually incredible and I think when some people take a breath and reflect on some of the stuff that’s been written, they might wonder themselves.

‘Ciarán Mac has been in my house I don’t know how many times and we talk maybe four or five times a day, plotting and planning about what we can do. I know there was a clip sent around of James Burke saying something to me. There were a couple of hundred people behind us so it was a bit noisy and I asked James to repeat what he said. That was taken out of context then. To me, that’s bonkers. That was published and people ran with it on absolutely nothing. It’s a complete untruth, I can’t control that.’ Aidan O’Shea was a lightning rod for a lot of personal abuse online in the wake of the final and Horan admitted that the same theme is a very modern one across different sports. ‘I use Twitter to follow games so stuff comes up on your phone and I was aware of the general theme out there. Over the last couple of months, the amount of professional athletes… we’ve had people pulling out of Grand Slams and the impact that social media can have on people.

‘It’s not nice for the person that gets it, it’s not nice for their families, it’s not nice for their partner or their friends. But you just need to move on.’ CIAN O’NEILL has been added to the Galway senior football backroom team. The Kildare man will join Pádraic Joyce next season as a coach having most recently been involved as Cork coach during Ronan McCarthy’s time in charge.