James McClean turned up to Derry City's Conference League defeat to Rijeka wearing a baseball cap that said 'Joker' — and helpfully pointed at it for the photographers. That's where things stand at the Brandywell right now.
Former Republic of Ireland international Keith Treacy has seen enough. "Massively out of order" was his verdict on RTÉ's Soccer podcast, and it's hard to argue. McClean's running social media commentary on what's wrong at his hometown club has, in Treacy's view, turned the dressing room toxic — splitting players between those who side with him and those who back manager Tiernan Lynch.
The dressing room is fractured
After being dropped from the matchday squad for the Rijeka second leg, McClean posted on Instagram suggesting the problem wasn't the players' quality or effort — implying, without naming names, that the issue was elsewhere. He then followed it up with a video explicitly targeting former Derry manager Roddy Collins, who had called him the worst signing the club had ever made.
Treacy's read on the situation is blunt: "Half the people [in the dressing room] would say, 'I see what James is talking about.' Half of them will say 'I'm with the manager.' And let's remember, James's brother is in the mix there. It just seems like a toxic one."
He also questioned whether anyone in the squad carries enough weight to pull McClean aside and tell him to stop. That's a damning assessment of the group dynamic at a club that finished runners-up last season and is now sixth in the league and out of Europe.
Lynch may be the one who loses his job
RTÉ analyst Paul Corry made the most uncomfortable point of all: despite McClean being the one lighting fires, it's probably Lynch who gets burned. McClean has another 12 months on his contract. He's not leaving. And with authority built over a long career — including over a century of senior appearances — he carries a kind of dressing room gravity that managers often can't override, especially when results are poor.
"He's completely undermined Tiernan Lynch," Corry said. "Often in situations like this, particularly when you've got somebody with his kind of authority, it's often the manager who tends to lose out."
Treacy's advice was simple: if McClean isn't contributing on the pitch — and by his own admission, Treacy suggested he isn't offering much — he should walk away. He cited his own exit from St Patrick's Athletic in 2016, when he told manager Liam Buckley he couldn't continue rather than collect a wage he hadn't earned.
"If you're not contributing, move on. And if he doesn't want to be there, move on."
McClean signed for Derry knowing Lynch was in charge. The grievances, whatever they are, could have been aired face to face. They weren't. And now a club with genuine ambitions at the start of the season is staring at a sixth-place finish, an early European exit, and a very public civil war — with the manager looking like the most expendable figure in it.
