Glentoran Targets Jim Magilton to Revive Season

Glentoran have set their sights on Cliftonville boss Jim Magilton as the man they want to lead the club out of its early-season slump.

Declan Devine’s two-year spell at the Oval ended on Monday after a dismal start to the campaign, leaving the Glens scrambling for a reset on the touchline. The handover has been anything but smooth. On Tuesday night, assistant managers Paddy McCourt and Tim McCann took temporary charge and watched their side fall to a home defeat against Irish Premiership leaders Coleraine, a result that only sharpened the urgency of the search.

That urgency has pushed Magilton to the top of Glentoran’s shortlist. The club have made a formal approach to speak with the Cliftonville manager, who suddenly finds himself at the centre of a storyline that will play out on and off the pitch this week. The two clubs are due to meet at Solitude on Saturday in an Irish Premiership fixture that now carries an extra edge.

Jim Magilton's Impact

Magilton, 57, has rebuilt his managerial reputation at Cliftonville. Appointed in 2023 as successor to Paddy McLaughlin, the former Northern Ireland international quickly stamped his authority on the Reds. Within a year he had delivered the Irish Cup, ending a 45-year wait for the trophy and restoring a sense of weight and history to the north Belfast club.

His impact did not stop there. Magilton guided Cliftonville to the 2025 BetMcLean Cup, with Glentoran themselves on the receiving end in the final. That victory underlined his growing stature in the Irish League dugout, even if an Irish Cup final defeat to Dungannon Swifts two months later denied him a domestic double.

His CV stretches far beyond Solitude. Before taking the Cliftonville job, Magilton held roles at Ipswich Town, the Irish FA, Dundalk and Melbourne Victory, experience that only strengthens his appeal to a Glentoran board looking for a proven hand.

Now the question hangs over the weekend: will the man who has turned Cliftonville into serial contenders soon be the one tasked with reviving Glentoran’s season?