Posted online: Nov 7th, 2008

Anthony Molloy has finally broken his silence on the managerial debacle that he claims has made Donegal the laughing stock of the country.

The former All Ireland winning captain has also blasted the ‘farcical’ and ‘naive’ manner in which the managerial offer to John Joe Doherty was withdrawn and then offered to Declan Bonner and Charlie Mulgrew only minutes later.

“I believe the way it started was that John Joe was offered the job over the phone. He then requested a meeting and didn’t get that meeting, and that’s a terrible way to handle a job as serious as this one.

“I was very surprised that the Chairman couldn’t facilitate him, there was no need to rush this as they’ll be no games till after Christmas anyway.

“Even if John Joe never had his say, it was very naive of the County Board to think that Declan and Charlie would accept the job, and the original offer to John Joe would never come to light. It’s farcical, and it was handled totally unprofessional.”

Speaking exclusively to the Donegal Post Molloy expressed his sorrow that former teammates and managers were now at loggerheads, but insisted that any post mortem would have to go back much further than the last three weeks, in relation to the current state of football within the county.

“It’s always easy to criticise when things start to go wrong. Mistakes were made there’s no doubt about that and the County Board made a big mistake. But they’ve made mistakes in the past and they haven’t learned from it, they didn’t learn from last year’s farce.

“Remember this didn’t start last year, or it didn’t start this year, this goes all the way back to the early nineties when managers were also being picked. Martin McHugh went for the job in 1994 and that was handled entirely wrong, but it went unnoticed.

“But just because he had some difficulties with a few county board officials at the time and we don’t have to name names, Martin didn’t get the job. There were people on the interviewing committee, and Martin McHugh knew in his heart and soul when he was going for the job that he hadn’t a hope of getting it.

“That’s going back to 94 but it’s been going on ever since. Different personnel have come and gone but they still haven’t learned from that, and it’s sad to see what has gone on and what’s still going on.”

The Ardara club man insisted that even after news of the offer and withdrawal had come to light on the Thursday morning, a damage limitation exercise could easily have prevented the ugly and nasty verbal’s that spilled on to the airwaves and front pages of both national and local media.

“If the board had come out and held their hands up and admitted that they made a mistake, but how do you get over what’s gone on in the last couple of weeks. There’s an awful lot of bad feeling now, involving people I played with and played under.

“Ok people have said let’s forget about 92, but the people involved now were also there back then. We do have to move on but people have been pitted against each other, and there’s a split there now caused by the County Board’s handling of the whole affair.

“I would have always regarded that bunch of players and management as a closely knit group. But it’s sad to see what’s going on, and it’s sad to see men that played and managed together, where we are today. “

Molloy also hit out at the current selection process, and feels that the county board could easily avoid future grievances by taking themselves out of the firing line and introducing an independent committee, similar to the system used in the employment of Giovanni Trapatoni by the FAI.

“I’ve always had a problem with this selection process anyway. The power was taken away from the clubs a long time ago and that’s wrong. Clubs always had a say, be it a show of hands or whatever and I genuinely think that was the start of this problem.

“I also think that the board should have stepped aside and taken in an independent body to select a new manager. Do what the FAI did recently, wash their hands of it and use three or four individuals who have been there, qualified people from within the county who have been through the mill on the playing field or in management.”

“I read Jim McGuinness’s article and his interview, and I know where he’s coming from. Jim would be a totally professional guy and it was sad to hear the likes of Jim heading for an interview that he knew he hadn’t a hope in hell of getting, or that people didn’t even want to look at what he had to offer.

The one thing that did please the former captain was the redundancy of the recent trend to go outside the county to fill the managerial hot seat, a practice that he felt was laughable, flawed and an insult to others within Donegal GAA circles.

“Nothing against Brian McIver, but he shouldn’t have been there in the first place. We have plenty people in our own county capable of managing Donegal. I think it’s laughable, and it was Mick O Dwyer that set this trend of going outside and managing different counties.

“If I went to Sligo tomorrow to manage, what are my first and foremost thoughts in my own head- and this is totally natural. First of all the money, secondly my ego, and the third thing unfortunately would be the good of Sligo- and let no one else tell you any different in regards to outside managers.”

Readdressing the overall failings within the county, Molloy pinpoints the failure to jump on the wave of footballing euphoria that swept the county in the mid nineties as the biggest mistake, and looks to our other northern neighbours as the perfect example, striking while the iron is hot and placing greatest emphasis on schools football.

“I think it has set football back, we had the chance in the mid nineties to seize the opportunity, but we took the eye of the ball. The board were more happy to run around with briefcases instead of getting things moving at the right levels.

“Going around the schools I seen it first hand, the amount of youngsters togged out in green and gold, I don’t like to keep referring to that era but it’s a shame that we let that opportunity slip.”

(Reporter: Frank Craig)