Jim McGuinness has broken his silence on his reasons for calling time on his days as Donegal senior football manager.

McGuinness - who was in the Celtic dugout for today's 5-0 win over Ross County - was a guest on RTE's The Saturday Show tonight and he explained: "In some respects it was a very difficult decision and then in other respects it was a very easy decision.

"I played for Donegal for 12 years, I went for the job a couple of times and didn't get it and then when I did get it I just wanted to give it everything I've got.

"That was the gameplan really. In my own mind, I thought four years here, I'll give it everything and I'd have no regrets. Before the final I had my mind kind of made up anyway, win, lose or draw.

"I suppose it made it a wee more difficult when we lost the final but I just felt the time is right.

"It was a fantastic journey, unbelievable experience, one of the best of my life.

"I enjoyed every single minute of it but the timing was right because I just put so much into it and I knew in my mind that that was the way it was going to pan out anyway."

The 2012 All-Ireland winning manager communicated his decision to his players via text and he admitted: "It was an emotional moment when you sit down to do that but the bottom line for me is purity and honesty.

"We've had that from day one, we've had a great time together, five years out of my life. It's a long time out of your life and you're living with these people, you're seeing them grow and develop, some of them getting married, some of them having children, a lot of them starting university and coming out the other side of it.

"From my own point of view, we only had one child when we started, we had five at the end of it. So you become very, very close."

The Glenties man would, obviously, have preferred to sign off with an All-Ireland final win over Kerry but it wasn't to be.

"Against Kerry we didn't deliver our normal performance. If we did deliver our performance I think we would have won the game.

"Kerry can be better as well but Kerry were better than us on the day, there is no question about that.

"I have no regrets about that. I wouldn't change a thing in the lead into the final and that's a funny thing to say. Our preparations were spot on, we went away on a training camp, our analysis, we knew what it was all about.

"We just didn't go in and deliver that performance and that was a very unusual thing for us, not to deliver that performance.

"We didn't deliver what we know we're capable of."

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