DECLAN Bonner is set to be the new Donegal senior football manager. It is expected the outgoing U21 manager’s name will go before a special county committee meeting tonight.
The 1992 All-Ireland winner is the choice of the selection committee set up to fill the vacancy left by the departure of Rory Gallagher.
The committee took the decision on Wednesday night and Bonner and the other two candidates Shaun Paul Barrett and Cathal Corey were told of the decision yesterday morning.
Reacting to the appointment, Bonner’s ex-county manager Brian McEniff said he was: “the right man for the job.”
McEniff added: “But we will need to give him time for there is a lot of expectation out there.
“He knows the players very well and Donegal football very well and was there before, albeit that it was 20 years ago.
“He is also very much involved with his club so he is very much up to speed with what is going down in Donegal.”
And McEniff suggested that unsuccessful candidate Cathal Corey might even be part of Bonner’s backroom team.
“I am pleased for Declan, and in our period of rebuilding his experience of the lads will be vital,’’ he added.
“It will not be an easy job because expectations are always high in Donegal and he will be under a good deal of pressure.
“What he needs is time and patience and our supporters need to be patient too.”
So what are Bonner’s main strengths?
“Well, he has been involved since county minor level in 1983,’’ said McEniff.
“I have watched him the whole way up and when he got injured at the tail end of his career I suggested that he maybe should get involved in management.
“I was thinking in terms of underage but he jumped into senior county management head first and was most unlucky to lose an Ulster title in 1998.
“Derry caught us with a late goal, but Declan has gained a lot of experience and is a football man.
“He has a good football sense and that will stand him in good stead and of course he will need a very good backroom team.
“It will not be an easy task and it will take time and we need to give him time.’’
Bonner’s expected appointment brings to an end six weeks of intense speculation over who was to succeed Gallagher.
The Na Rossa clubman previously managed Donegal seniors from 1997 to 2000.
He took them to an Ulster final against Derry in 1998 when they were beaten by a last minute Joe Brolly goal.
In more recent times, he guided Donegal to an All-Ireland minor final in 2014, when they lost to Kerry, and he also took this year’s U21s to an Ulster title only to lose heavily to Dublin within days of taking that provincial crown.
Bonner has deep knowledge of the current senior squad and has worked with most of them since they were U16s.
Bonner has never made any secret of his desire to manage his county and was part of an unsuccessful double ticket with Charlie Mulgrew in 2008, the year John Joe Doherty was appointed.
