Kerry legend puts McGuinness comments on David Clifford down to ‘mind games’

It's All-Ireland final week!

That's the prevailing question heading into Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final between Kerry and Donegal.

Such is the class of the Kingdom's talisman, that the conversations of whether he is the best of all time have been rampant all week, with Donegal boss Jim McGuinness also chipping in.

He said: “Myself and Mark Anthony (son) were chatting about it on the way up in the car there and we were talking about the fact that he (Clifford) could be the best player that has ever played the game and time will tell on that I suppose.

"You can never make that assertion until somebody hangs up the boots but certainly he’s an exceptional football player.

“He seems to be very driven this year. He’s carrying the fight I would almost say with a determination and aggressiveness like an attacking aggressiveness – when he sees a gap he’s just really going for that gap.

"Even some of the scorers even in Croke Park – he’s not kicking it over, he’s firing it over.

“It’s almost like he’s putting down markers and I think he’s leading from the front, literally.”

However, speaking with SportsJOE, Marc Ó Sé - a five-time All-Ireland winner and three-time All-Star with Kerry - believes that McGuinness's comments are merely mind games.

He said: "I would maybe cast judgement on that when he's finished his career, but he's certainly going in the right direction, there's no doubt about that, but obviously Jim is playing mind games.

"But Jimmy likes winning matches so he's just going to put that out there.

"But again I don't think it's really going to affect David Clifford what people say of him, because he's at the age now where he's really mature and he takes this in his stride.

"And I think this is just another game for him, obviously it's a big one, it's another All-Ireland final, he's got one All-Ireland and he wants a second one there's not doubt about that, you win your first, you get greedy, you want to win a second one."