There is only one Rory Gallagher in Donegal and it defo isnt this one.
Much as I dislike McGuinness he was a great manager. Gallagher's "Phil Neal" act annoyed me even more and he has proved hiimself to be nothing more than a hanger on as the team got progressively worse every year.
In fairness to Gallagher he has had to introduce all the youngsters together because McGuinness didn't. Stuck with the same players and ran them into the ground. Whoever takes over will have a group of young lads who at least have a year's experience behind them
McGuinness left three years ago. And in his last season, when we could easily have won it all again, he introduced Ryan McHugh, Odhran MacNiallais and Darragh O'Connor to the first 15. The likes of Mark McHugh, Paddy McGrath, 17 year old Paddy McBrearty and Dermot Malloy became regulars in his first season. Granted, one would like to have seen another one or two introduced in 2013, in addition to Ryan McHugh making a start, but were the players there?
Gallagher should have started bringing one or two more through last year, in addition to Kieran Gillespie. But he was probably victim as well to circumstance, in that there was a bit of a gap in quality between the young and older players playing football in Donegal. And if you believe the Declan Bonner column in the Donegal News, there is another gap looming following the current crop of young lads who made up this years U-21s.