“Is that the language, yeah?”
Jim McGuinness had clearly read Joe Brolly’s blunt response to the former Donegal manager’s own column, in which he wrote with confidence about his county’s hopes in this summer’s Championship.
He knows that Brolly did not accuse McGuinness of being “overly-kind”. Brolly said McGuinness was “taking the piss”.
“Jim McGuinness is enjoying turning the screw on Rory Gallagher. Once inseparable, they no longer speak,” wrote Brolly.
While McGuinness confirmed to SportsJOE that he does, indeed, have no contact with his former assistant Gallagher, he was reluctant to get into a slanging match with the irascible Sunday Game pundit.
“What is important for me is to not start commenting on my own comment. When you write a column, it’s your opinion, so you shouldn’t really have to answer questions on your own opinion,” said McGuinness at the launch of Sky Sports’ GAA coverage.
“Listen we all know Joe’s situation. He got four good years out of me when I was manager and now he is trying to get another few columns out of me as a pundit, which is ironic.”
While himself and Gallagher no longer communicate, McGuinness – now working in Glasgow for Celtic – has enough contacts in the county setup to be confident that too much should not be read into an Allianz League campaign that saw defeats to Kerry, Roscommon, Dublin and Monaghan.
“They haven’t pushed the button that hard,” said McGuinness, citing the long gap before their Ulster opener against Fermanagh on June 12th.
“I would be in contact with a few of the players but only to wish them good luck here or there. Because I think it is important to be there and supporting them, but also to be giving them space. I spoke to Michael Murphy on the phone there a couple of months back and we never mentioned the football and I was happy with that.
“There is a different management set up and they are working on things and for me that distance is really important, but to have that relationship as well, because we have been through so much.
“So, whenever I stepped away I made that conscious decision in my mind not to be commenting too much and not to be living in people ears, which is a saying we have up in Donegal, and letting them breathe.”
So, has he spoken with Gallagher, with whom he won an All-Ireland in 2012 before an acrimonious break-up and Gallagher’s subsequent anger with McGuinness’s memoir?
“No.”
Whether it is Brolly or Gallagher, McGuinness has no interest in continuing the circle of strife.
