Maughan departure inevitable

I suppose there was no other place to go for John Maughan after Sunday’s defeat against Westmeath.
Two and a half years in the job and Roscommon were still going backwards, en route to Division 3.
I don’t blame Maughan for that after all you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear and Roscommon don’t exactly have a full well to draw off when it comes to inter-county footballers.
The Connacht side are the type of county who will come once in a generation and you have to go back to the start of the ‘80s since they were a force at national level, possibly leaving on All Ireland behind them when the great Kerry side were there for the taking.
However, the writing was on the wall for Maughan when he was singled out for some terrible abuse from Roscommon fans on Sunday but his response to the abuse was probably more telling when he branded those supporters “customers”,
Abuse from the terraces is always hard to take in a game when people are making so many sacrifices to run teams but when supporters take the trouble to go and watch their county playing in the national league these so-called “customers” are usually among your most committed fans.
When the county manager dubs them “customers” it’s clear that the relationship between the fans and the management team is broken beyond repair.
John Maughan is one of the most experienced managers in football and he can have had no doubt on Sunday when he made his comments that his stay in Roscommon was at an end.
Maughan has one of the best track records in the country, he won’t be short of offers but he’ll not look back on his spell in Roscommon with much affection.