Former Donegal manager Brian McEniff calls for Jim McGuinness to replace Paddy Carr

Ulster Football Championship Donegal 12/6/2005 Manager Brian McEniff Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Andrew Paton

Former Donegal manager Brian McEniff has admitted its latest episode with Paddy Carr’s shock resignation is “like blood spilling.”

McEniff guided Donegal to their first ever All-Ireland title back in 1992 and has stressed the man who succeeded him 20 years later in winning Sam Maguire - Jim McGuinness - is the man to sort things out.

Carr only took charge of the team last October and was in charge for just eight matches, two in the Dr McKenna Cup and six in the Allianz League Division 1, winning just one against Kerry in January.

"CLG Dhún na nGall regret to announce that Paddy Carr is resigning as Donegal manager with immediate effect," read a statement from the county board.

"Following a discussion with some senior members of the Donegal football team, I want to announce that I’m stepping away from the position of Donegal team Manager with immediate effect,” Carr said. “I want nothing more than the best for Donegal and that will never change.”

Carr was assisted by Aidan O'Rourke, Paddy Bradley and Declan MacIntyre, and on appointment it was announced that the ticket would have a two-year term, with a review following the first year. It is understood they will oversee matters this weekend.

Sunday's 1-17 to 0-9 home loss to Mayo means that Donegal are almost certainly relegated to Division 2 of the Allianz League this season, even before Sunday's trip to Roscommon. Donegal open their Ulster campaign on Sunday, April 23, away to Down in Newry.

Donegal GAA, before the news broke, had confirmed a special county committee meeting would take place on Thursday night, with the only item on the Donegal GAA academy, which lost its Head of Academy in January when Karl Lacey resigned and was followed out by all the county's coaches in a show of solidarity.

“This meeting is called to address recent media/publications surrounding the Academy and other unrelated matters raised in these media/publications,” read the notice of the meeting from Donegal GAA early on Wednesday. The media, as has been the case for several years in Donegal, are not permitted to attend county committee meetings.

McEniff has called on McGuinness to take the reins. Last week, on The Irish Examiner podcast, McGuinness said that last year he was interested in joining a backroom team with Rory Kavanagh and Karl Lacey, to replace the outgoing Declan Bonner, last autumn.

However, in the wake of his St Eunan’s Letterkenny side’s loss to Naomh Conaill from Glenties in the Donegal SFC, their manager Kavanagh withdrew and Lacey, at the time, decided to put his focus into the Academy.

“When the Rory thing didn’t work out, they never came back to me. We never had another conversation,” McGuinness said last week in relation to a lack of follow-up from the Donegal County Board.

McEniff told the Donegal Democrat on Thursday: “We have to sort this out. My feeling is that we should approach Jim McGuinness in the short term to see if he would take over the team for a period of time.

“I haven’t been speaking to Jim since before Christmas. Someone would need to step up to the plate who could handle the situation and Jim would be the best fit to do that. There is no doubt about that. It is an unenviable task that the new county chairman has been presented with but he has to lead from the front. Lord bless us, it is like blood spilling”.