'It's been manic... James is a Derry player': Connolly coy on McClean situation

Derry City's James McClean. Pic: Presseye/Jonathan Porter

MARK Connolly has moved to quash rumours that Derry City attempted to terminate James McClean's contract, insisting the former Ireland international remains employed by the Brandywell club.

The 103-capped winger has two-and-a-half years remaining on his current contract and attended an open training session at Brandywell on Tuesday despite reports claiming the club told him to stay away.

The 37-year-old posed for photographs with young fans and signed autographs as part of the Féile Derry 2026 celebrations at the Lone Moor Road venue. 

He also took part in training at Owenbeg on Wednesday morning and interim boss Connolly described the speculation surrounding McClean's future at the club as 'interesting'.

Director of football, Connolly, who stepped into the Brandywell hot seat following Tiernan Lynch's sacking last week, admits it's been a 'manic' week at the club.

He was non-committal when asked whether talks between the player and the club regarding McClean's future were ongoing, only confirming that the former Wrexham man was 'still a Derry City player'.

"It's been manic. There's been a lot of noise but ultimately I'm a football person and I deal with the football side of things," said Connolly when quizzed on the situation.

"There isn't too much to comment on. James is obviously still a Derry City player. There's been a lot of noise with it all and ultimately my focus is just stepping in, which, as you can imagine, has been a mad week. My full focus has been on the footballing side."

Asked if there was any truth in rumours the club has offered McClean a settlement, Connolly responded: "It was interesting to see the speculation on him turning up for training. James is a Derry player. Ultimately he has trained sometimes and not trained sometimes due to his age but yeah, James McClean is a Derry City player and that's really it moving forward."

It's been claimed Derry City isn't convinced the winger has the physical capabilities to represent the club given his chronic hip injury but Connolly wasn't prepared to discuss the player's fitness.

"That's something I won't be commenting on," he said bluntly. "Ultimately I'm not 100 percent sure about all the ins and outs. The biggest thing for me is that I've come into a situation at the club taking over the team, and that's my main focus - making sure to provide as much information to the players as I can to get as many points and try and progress in the cup."

When pressed on whether or not he's had talks with the player regarding the situation, the Monaghan man added: "I had a chat with James yesterday but that's obviously between James and myself. I'm just focusing on the football.

"Like I said James is a Derry City player. He's one of 20 odd players. They're all Derry City players and that's how it will be moving forward."

Derry City travel to the Belfield Bowl for a Club Orange FAI Cup second round clash with UCD on Friday night but Connolly refused to reveal whether McClean would be involved in the game.

The Creggan man has played just 19 fixtures in all competitions this season with his last start coming against Tolka Rovers in the previous round of the cup back on July 19th.

"Again that's something I'll not be commenting on to be honest with you. I'm just trying to focus on the training that's happened. I don't know what will happen on Friday regarding team selection and stuff. We had a training session today going through stuff. We will have a training session tomorrow and then we will decide what we're going to do on Friday but that's my full focus."