Harte: Dual role could yet enhance McGuinness

Tyrone boss Mickey Harte believes a new career with Celtic could help Jim McGuinness become a better Gaelic football manager.

And Harte is confident the Donegal boss can combine the two roles after being offered a contract by the Scottish giants.

“It could be complementing what he’s doing, going to Celtic, where he will be working on the same kind of platform that he would be with Donegal,” said Harte.

“People have done this before, they juggled full-time careers with management in the world of Gaelic football.

“He obviously has weighed up the situation and decided that he’s able to manage that, and maybe we’ll see that it will enhance his ability to be a manager with Donegal, so maybe we all better look out for that.”

But the Red Hand boss, whose team will meet the All-Ireland champions in their Ulster Championship opener next summer, predicts a difficult and demanding schedule for McGuinness, should be decide to combine both roles.

“It will obviously be challenging for him, but I’m sure he has thought long and hard about this, it’s nothing you would just do off the cuff.

“I’m sure this has been on his mind for some time, and he’s been thinking how could he best address the two situations, where he still wants to be involved with Donegal.

“He has a career path to follow, he has got the credentials to go into that level of engagement in any professional sport, or amateur, where he is going to make a living out of it, and he has got a young family.

“I think it’s understandable what he’s doing, but it will be very taxing, with being out of the zone for the three days or whatever it is, and being back in and switching on and off from one to the other. It will be very challenging.”

McGuinness brought Donegal the Sam Maguire Cup in his second season in charge, and Harte expects the Glenties man to continue to achieve at a high level. “When Jim McGuinness decides that he’s able to do it, who would any of the rest of us be to challenge that?”