Celtic boss relieved McGuinness able to keep doubters quiet

Celtic manager Neil Lennon admits the knives would have been out for his performance consultant Jim McGuinness had Donegal not overcome Tyrone in the Ulster championship.

Many eyebrows were raised last November when the manager of All-Ireland champions accepted an offer to join Lennon’s staff, a role which involved spending part of his week in Scotland.

However, the Bhoys boss insisted his latest staff addition never compromised his core job and was glad he silenced the doubters by overseeing a six-point victory over Mickey Harte’s men in Ballybofey.

“There would have been lot of people sharpening their knives for Jim if he’d lost that game,” said Lennon, who was at the Aviva Stadium yesterday to announce Celtic’s friendly against Liverpool on August 10.

“I’m sure people would have been saying he wasn’t focused on the job because he’s spending three days a week in Glasgow. But we at Celtic made sure his work with us wouldn’t override his primary job as Donegal manager. Jim was very nervous going into that game against Tyrone. We spoke briefly last week and he was really pleased with how they came through that tie. The victory has given Donegal a huge psychological lift.”

It was McGuinness’s speciality in sports psychology which prompted Lennon to headhunt him in the aftermath of that All-Ireland triumph over Mayo. The main remit of the Glenties man since assuming his role is to work with Celtic’s youngsters at their training base in Lennoxtown. The Celtic boss is fascinated by the improvements which the techniques of McGuinness yield.

“Jim’s work with the younger players has given us much more insight into their mentality,” he explained. “What we want from Jim is to build up a profile of all the younger players, so we know their strengths and weaknesses. It’s not just football-wise — because we know most of that already — but in their private lives as well. I’ve picked up little snippets of the way he works. How basically he evolved his ideas on GAA which really took Donegal from the Third division to the Champions League in a very short space of time.

“We chew the fat over lot of things, not just football or GAA, more the psychology of sport than anything else.”

The success of McGuinness does have its downside for Lennon, however, as Donegal have taken the mantle of his beloved Armagh as Ulster kingpins. When asked if there are plenty of grumpy Armagh fans, the Lurgan native snapped back. “Yes — and I’m one of them! We had a great decade of success but I just think Armagh are going through the transitional phase which a lot of counties do.”