A special county board meeting in Donegal, set to take place tomorrow night, is set to ratify Declan Bonner as the new Donegal manager.
Donegal are in need of a new manager after Rory Gallagher resigned in August, despite having a year left of his term.
Bonner is set to take over the county senior team after successful spells with the minor and Under 21 teams in recent years. In 2014, he led the Donegal minors to the All-Ireland final where they were beaten by Kerry, in the first of their 4-in-a-row at the grade.
This year, as Under 21 manager, his team won the Ulster title, hammering Derry in the final. They were beaten by a dominant Dublin team in the semi finals.
It's set to be Bonner's second spell in charge of his native county. In 1997, at the age of just 32, he took over. In his original time in charge, the most notable moment came in the 1998 Ulster final, when Joe Brolly kissed to the crowd after scoring a last minute winner to cost Donegal an Ulster title.
Bonner will always hold a special place in the heart of Donegal fans. He was a key member of the historic 1992 All-Ireland winning team.
His manager back then, Brian McEniff recently backed his former player for the job.
I'd go with Declan Bonner having been involved with the minors and the U-21s in recent years. A lot of those players are involved in the senior set-up now so you can see the reasoning behind him getting the job.
Declan has the experience of working with them for the past few years and in 1998, he was barely retired from football when he managed the senior team and they were unlucky to be beaten by Derry in an Ulster final.
I was hoping Rory would have stayed on for another year, if not two, but for whatever reason he stepped down. I thought he was going to take a break from it all together but when your home county comes looking for you, it's hard to refuse that.
Donegal have struggled to build on their 2012 All-Ireland success under Jim McGuinness and their 2017 season could be considered a disaster, with the team losing by nine points to Tyrone in Ulster, before being beaten by five goals to Galway in the Qualifiers.
