He’s back for more.
They say you should never go back but Mayo fans don’t want to know anything about that for the time being. The eternal optimists out west have nothing if they don’t have hope and they’ll be convincing themselves that the Ballintubber bainisteoir’s second bite of the cherry is going to finally take them to the holy grail.
From the moment Stephen Rochford was given the cold shoulder, the westerners were pining for the return of the man who guided them to the cusp of glory on more than one occasion.
Now, that is set in stone. The Mayo county board meeting took place on Thursday night where Horan was sworn in as the boss for a second time.
His backroom team was also confirmed as Daniel Forde from Ballycastle, Martin Barrett from Kiltane and James Burke from Ardnaree Sarsfields.
Conor Finn and Joe Doyle are also said to be a part of the backroom team.
At tonight's Co Board meeting James Horan was ratified for a 4 year term as manger of the Mayo Senior Football team, along with his management team of Daniel Forde (@ballycgaa), Martin Barrett (@KiltaneGAA), & James Burke (@ArdnareeSarsGaa). #mayogaa #gaa
— Mayo GAA (@MayoGAA) October 4, 2018
There were substantial rumours doing the rounds earlier on in the day that Mayo legend Ciaran McDonald would be a part of James Horan’s ticket but that doens’t appear to be the case just yet.
Mayo folk are still holding out hope that he may be added to the team in the near future.
The county’s former under-21 boss Mike Solan, who was Horan’s main rival for the job before he pulled out of the race last week – was also linked with a role as a selector or coach, but that hasn’t come to fruition either.
In 2012 and 2013, Horan’s Mayo fell at the final hurdle to Dublin and Donegal respectively.
In the mean-time Horan has held jobs in Galway – he bizarrely took over Turloughmore, a senior hurling team in the county last year, while more recently, he was involved with the Westport seniors who were knocked out of the Mayo SFC by Breaffy two weeks ago.
A host of Mayo fans are disappointed that McDonald hasn’t been drafted in by Horan.
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