Mayo confident Horan will stay

Mayo GAA chiefs are confident James Horan will remain in charge next season.

Speculation has been rife that Horan was considering his position due to work and family commitments following the All-Ireland SFC final loss to Dublin.

However, the two-time All Star is not scheduled to meet the board until next week where they will discuss the season and outlay the initial plans for 2014.

“As far as we’re concerned James will be in charge next season,” said county board PRO Aiden McLoughlin.

“This speculation has come as there hasn’t been much activity on the county scene because we have been concentrating on the club championship since the All-Ireland final.

“We are not even due to meet James until after the club semi-finals, which has been the case every year. There has been all kinds of speculation and stuff written about this and we don’t know where it’s coming from.

“James, this time last year, was given a two-year extension to his three-year term which was due to end this year and we are confident that will be fulfilled by James.

“We discussed it with the clubs at last night’s (Monday) meeting and we’ll be meeting James to plan the season next week.”

However, Horan may be forced to make changes to his back room team as selectors James Nallen and Tom Prendergast are expected to step down due to family commitments.

McLoughlin said: “I could not comment on that because we won’t know James’s plans for sure until our meetings. We typically have an initial discussion and after the county final the frameworks are discussed for the following season. That won’t change this year. There’s a lot of work that goes into preparing a team of Mayo’s stature for a season and James is meticulous in that process.”