What’s gaffer in Irish?
Jim McGuinness is enjoying a well earned summer holiday for his exertions with Celtic, but he’ll be on our TV screens again starting this weekend.
The former Donegal manager is one of Sky’s new GAA pundits, and their season of coverage gets underway with the meeting of Kildare and Laois on Saturday night.
The successfull GAA boss is a coach at Celtic and has impressed many with his approach to the professional game since taking a role at Parkhead in November of 2012.
The Glenties man has been tipped to become more involved in the day-to-day action with the first team, with some pundits suggesting he may become a full-time football manager some day.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Off the Ball tonight Celtic legend Tom Boyd feels that the former ex-GAA boss would be well suited for a role in football as a manager, and has hailed his work with the first-team,
“I think he’s certainly having an impact.”
“I think the level of fitness the team has shown certainly in the second half of the season is the key to why they have had their success.”
“I think the manager believes in it and I know John Collins who’s an assistant, and John Kennedy who work with him, and they’re great believers in it and I think that’s certainly come along.”
“Maybe he’ll take that experience and go on to be a manager, but he’s certainly helping the backroom staff and the players to produce some fantastic results.”
However John Giles wasn’t so sure of the former All-Ireland winner taking over as a full-time manager in England or Scotland. The ex-Leeds midfielder feels that McGuinness may struggle to cope with all of the demands placed on a manager of a football club,
“There are many aspects to being a professional footballers, mind games and everything else. I don’t know what he does. I know his background in Gaelic in which he did great and he does probably add something in approach and all that.”
“If he goes to be a manager on his own I would be a bit cautious on what he can produce overall.
“I don’t know what he produces at the moment in approach.
“If your own your own that’s only one aspect of it.
“There are loads and loads of other aspects of management that you need to have and I don’t know if he would have them or not.”
