{"id":577224,"date":"2026-07-31T13:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577224\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T13:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T13:59:09","slug":"theres-an-issue-somewhere-mcclean-lashes-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/577224\/","title":{"rendered":"‘There’s an issue somewhere’ – McClean lashes out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Derry City’s James McClean has once more expressed his dissatisfaction with how the club are performing following their Conference League exit.<\/p>\n

McClean was not included in the matchday squad for yesterday evening’s 1-0 defeat at home to Rijeka<\/a>, which concluded their European campaign, the Croatian side winning 2-0 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Tiernan Lynch’s side – runners-up domestically in 2025 – had performed creditably in their Europa League tie against CSKA Sofia, eventually losing 5-3 on aggregate in a tempestuous tie which was marked by serious crowd trouble instigated by the visiting fans at the Brandywell.<\/p>\n

Another tough draw in the Conference League saw them face Rijeka, conquerors of Shelbourne in last year’s Europa League, and Derry’s European tilt came to an end, on a night where both Shels and Bohemians progressed.<\/p>\n

The former Ireland international – who had been an unused sub in the first leg – was pictured in a club hoodie before the game, pointedly wearing a baseball cap which bore the message ‘JOKER’.<\/p>\n

After the game, McClean posted a message on Instagram, where he said that the players and their effort levels were not the problem – but that the issue lay elsewhere.<\/p>\n

“Rovers, Bohs, Shels, Larne have all progressed through ties in Europe this year. We played four, lost four,” wrote McClean.<\/p>\n

“And sorry, it needs to be said, we have every much as good, if not better, a squad on paper [as those clubs].<\/p>\n

“If you watch the games, the lads aren’t losing these games based on lack of effort. So clearly there is an issue somewhere.<\/p>\n

\"30
\nCameron Dummigan reacts after Derry concede the game’s only goal<\/p>\n

“Given [I] am around it every day and have the CV to give my opinion, I think I’ll give it whether anyone likes it or not.<\/p>\n

“If you don’t like it, then you’ll excuse me for not caring about your opinion, given that 99.9% that have a lot to say have never played a professional game in their lives.”<\/p>\n

The 37-year old made a high-profile return to his hometown club ahead of the 2026 season, however Derry have misfired badly in this campaign and are currently languishing in sixth position and well out of contention for the title.<\/p>\n

McClean himself has endured a poor campaign and recently made cryptic remarks on RT\u00c9’s World Cup coverage about how the season had not panned out as he envisaged or how he was promised.<\/p>\n

“My family have enjoyed being home. Probably not so much myself if I’m being honest. You have a lot of conversations on the phone. Then you come home and realise what you hear on the phone is not what you see in reality.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Derry City’s James McClean has once more expressed his dissatisfaction with how the club are performing following their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":577225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-577224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=577224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/577224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/577225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=577224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=577224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=577224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}