Sean Cavanagh says there is no guarantee Mickey Harte will continue as Derry manager after a championship campaign that has “not been anywhere near good enough”.

After winning the Allianz League in the spring, the Oak Leafers’ season petered out in a dreadfully disappointing championship which culminated in a five-point defeat to Kerry last Sunday. Asked about his former Tyrone manager’s future with Derry on The Sunday Game, Cavanagh replied: “It is hard to say, I suppose that (decision) is for Derry county board.

"I think if you asked anyone in Derry tonight; winning a League does not mean an awful lot when you go through a championship where you have lost four games, drawn one and beaten a Division 3 team (Westmeath). That is a poor championship season.

"With the personnel and quality they have in that group, and they have a couple of really cracking minor teams - from last year's winners to this year's which is back in the final - there is a lot to be envious of in terms of talent in the county.

"But the championship simply has not been anywhere near good enough."

Cavanagh feels Derry never recovered from their disastrous Ulster SFC quarter-final loss to Donegal.

"When they came up against an amazing Donegal performance that night in Celtic Park in the first round of the championship, the humiliation of that game, coupled by the way the Armagh game went and the Galway game, I think they just played with too much fear,” he opined.

"It wasn't the team that last year went and they scored 1-15 against Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final and were a kick of the ball away from the final. We were all expecting this Derry team to go a step further this year.

"It just felt like that loss in Celtic Park and the manner of it was just too much."

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