Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Horan set for return with Mayo
JAMES HORAN says a new breed of talent is behind his decision to go for the Mayo job once again.
Horan has allowed his name to go forward for the role he vacated four years ago despite indicating last month that the timing wasn’t right for his return just now.
He was nominated by his club Ballintubber, with under-20 manager Michael Solan’s name also put forward, though Horan would have to be clear favourite given his pedigree and the apparent desire among the players for him to succeed Stephen Rochford.
The county board did make contact with Jack O’connor but the ex-kerry boss was not believed to be interested.
Horan guided Mayo to four successive Connacht titles from 2011-14 as well as All-ireland final appearances in 2012 and
‘13, losing to Donegal and Dublin respectively.
In recent years he has remained involved in management, strangely in hurling with Turloughmore in Galway and is currently in charge of Westport senior footballers, who bowed out of the Mayo SFC over the weekend.
He said: “I’m a Mayo man, I love coaching, I’m involved in coaching for a number of years now.
“There’s a very good team there and I just think it’s a very good time in Mayo football. We have a centre of excellence being developed, we’ve some very good underage players coming through.
“You saw Colm Moran and a few of them I’ve been involved with in Westport, so I’d be very excited about what’s coming through.
“If you squash that in with the experience that’s there, I just think that there’s possibly exciting times and I’d just love to help them in some way.
“Since my name has gone forward, I don’t know how many CVS of people from around the country that I’ve got in my inbox wanting to be involved in Mayo football.”