JIM McGuinness “will not be involved in the Down senior management” says Mourne boss Conor Laverty.
The 2012 All-Ireland winning Donegal manager did take a training session with Down last week ahead of the start of the Allianz League, which they began with a win over Tipperary that they made hard work of in the end, having been 1-6 to 0-1 up at a stage.
A tweet from fellow Down man Steven Poacher after the game had referenced “the addition of Jim McGuinness this week”, prompting speculation of a tie-up.
McGuinness had been mooted as part of a management ticket along with Laverty and Marty Clarke at the end of 2021, but that fell through and James McCartan took the job instead.
Speaking to The Irish News last night, Laverty confirmed that McGuinness had taken a session last week.
While he hopes to repeat that, McGuinness was not in Tipperary and will have no matchday involvement with Down.
“He will not be involved in the Down senior management,” said Laverty.
“Me and Jim have known each other for a long time. We’d chat quite regularly. He’s been a really good guidance in my time in management, someone I can go to and bounce ideas off.
“I’ve asked him numerous times to come in and do a session. Over the past couple of months I’ve been trying to get him to do a session with the lads, he took me up on that. It was a brilliant session.
“I know the man has serious other commitments, I know how busy his schedule is. I was delighted he could come in and take a session.
“I’d been on his case to come in and speak to the lads because of the similarities between him taking a successful U20 team and developing and merging them into a senior squad.
“I’m extremely lucky as a young manager to be able to lift the phone at any time and have friends who have been some of the best managers in the game like Jim McGuinness, Mickey Moran and Sean Boylan.
“The way it’s left with Jim, it was very beneficial. We all thought it was brilliant. It was super for this group of Down players. The learning we took from it was invaluable.
"In our next conversation I’ll definitely be putting on a bit of pressure for him to come back down the road before the season’s over.”
