JIM MCGUINNESS HAS SPOKEN of how he is drawing inspiration from some of the world’s top managers in his rise up soccer’s coaching ladder.
McGuinness has been working with Celtic FC since being hired as the club’s Performance Consultant by then manager Neil Lennon in November 2012, just six weeks after leading Donegal to an All-Ireland title.
Last season, new Celtic manager Ronnie Deila enhanced McGuinness’ role at Celtic Park with the Glenties man now working as a sports psychologist with the first team.
McGuinness has begun taking his coaching badges and earlier this year started his UEFA ‘B’ Licence.
In a previous guise, McGuinness worked with both Finn Harps and Derry City, but he has now undertaken several coaching courses with the assistance of the Football Association of Ireland.
He is now ‘studying teams and certain elements’ as he enhances an already-impressive curriculum vitae.
“Bayer Leverkusen have a really interesting coach in Roger Schmidt, obviously Pep Guardiola, defensively there’s (José) Mourinho,” McGuinness said in an interview on Newstalk’s Off The Ball programme tonight.
“I’m so close to the action here at Celtic so I should be studying that closer than anything because I’m in a position to question it: ‘Why do we do this or that?’ and I’ll always get an answer.”
McGuinness revealed a particular admiration for Diego Simeone, the manager of Atlético Madrid.
He said: “I like that style and the manager (Deila) has that style of high intensity. In Donegal we built our platform on a defensive platform and using that to attack.
“Simeone and our own manager, Ronnie, like to press up, maybe like Dublin, and making it difficult for the opposition to play through the middle.”
McGuinness is now much more hands-on at Celtic Park than he had been in his original position working with the young players at the club.
He said: “It’s a different challenge. I’ve been getting to know the manager, his coaching staff and how they operate.
“The last twelve months have been a great learning experience.
“I’m very fortunate that I’m around over 20 international players and you get to see how the operate, how they think, how they train.
“Obviously, there is the manager and the people he has around him, like John Collins, John Kennedy and Stevie Woods.
“I consider myself to be in a priveleged position. I’m working with one of the biggest clubs in the world and the club I’ve supported all my wife.”
McGuinness led Donegal through their most successful period, winning Sam Maguire in 2012, reaching the 2014 All-Ireland final where they lost against Kerry and winning three out of four Ulster Championships.
This summer, through his media work with Sky Sports and The Irish Times, McGuinness has voiced a desire to see change in the structure of the Football Championship, going as far as to outline how exactly he’d have the summer laid out.
In the wake of Dublin’s capture of Sam Maguire on Sunday, thanks to their win over Kerry, McGuinness said that others counties have to ‘catch up’ with Jim Gavin’s side.
He said: “Dublin have got their house in order and we have to commend them for that, 100 per cent.
“Dublin aren’t the bad guys here. They’re doing exactly what they set out to do in terms of their strategic plan. It’s up to others to catch up with that.
“Money does play a big part, but so does the coaching of players. The two of them are inter-linked. Dublin are getting it right on both levels and they have the population as well. The resources are there, both physical and human.”
On the seemingly ever-growing gap between the top teams and the rest of the field in the All-Ireland race, McGuinness said: “The top teams are doing more to move away from the others. They want to keep the success going and they understand how valuable that is. They’re trying to build on the systems whereas the others don’t have those systems and they have a very long journey to get to the top.
“There’ll always be a top tier, a middle tier and a bottom tier, but it’s about getting more teams up to challenge.
Listen to Jim McGuinness’s interview here: http://wwwnewstalk.com/podcasts/Off_The_Ball/GAA_on_Off_The_Ball/106261/
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