Derry must park off-field upheaval on the biggest day  

Derry City chairman Philip O'Doherty among the fans. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Key to Derry City lifting their seventh FAI Cup on Sunday is achieving a level of cohesion on the pitch that the club lacks off it.

For all the investment that local self-made billionaire Philip O’Doherty has pumped into his beloved club, weaknesses in his structure continue to bedevil them.

One prime example is the due diligence around the marquee signing of James McClean.

Smiles and giggles abounded at the Ryan McBride Stadium when the city’s favourite son made his homecoming 15 years after leaving for Sunderland.

The centurion would not only be the missing link in City’s tilt at for a first Premier title since 1997 but would transition into a coaching role once the twilight of his career concluded.

Nobody foresaw that primary aspect ending prematurely after just 17 games and 1,049 minutes on the pitch.

O’Doherty and his board quickly decided that McClean was physically incapable of withstanding the rigours of LOI football.

Their only, yet seismic, problem in justifying their opinion was a failure to conduct the customary medical on the statement recruit upon his arrival in January.

A little detail became a big one when their quest to terminate his contract was met with legal resistance, eventually adding additional costs.

They should have been avoidable and the fact their chief executive Seán Barrett had departed a month earlier might have been a factor.

Despite O’Doherty vowing to take a more hands-on approach around the club, as the handover of his business following the €1.8bn sale to Vertiv wrapped up, the absence of an experienced figurehead at executive level has hamstrung them.

There’s too much activity around a club of its stature, between the stadium upgrades, search for a training base, and the demands of a football team regularly competing in Europe, for the administration side of the business to be deficient.

O’Doherty tried to plug some of the gaps by luring Mark Connolly back to the club, six months after he’d left for Coleraine. The defender’s playing career was over but at 34 the supremo felt he was the appropriate candidate for the position of director of football.

Notwithstanding the fact that the expanse of the position was entirely fresh for the ex-Wolves and Bolton Wanderers centre-back but within two months he was redeployed as caretaker manager.

That followed the sacking of Tiernan Lynch, creating a misconception that McClean had emerged victorious in a battle with a manager he soon lost faith in. Not so, as O’Doherty and his board were already questioning McClean’s bodily state and aghast at some of his public spats he became embroiled in.

Connolly’s primary function ought to have been identifying and working with a new manager but instead he was charged with arresting the team’s slide down the table. That part was achieved, coupled with the Cup run, but he sensibly has ruled out permanency in the position.

“We have discussions,” Connolly told the Irish Examiner on Tuesday when asked how he’s juggling preparations with the overriding mission of installing a manager for next season.

“Myself, (club director) Patrick Simpson and Philip O’Doherty have discussions but the full focus this week is the cup final.

“Once the final whistle goes, I’m sure conversations will happen from then.” 

They should be already advanced by now with an announcement imminent.

If the local rumour mill is accurate about a Stephen Kenny trilogy being the priority of the hierarchy then at least the experience drought on the footballing side will be rectified.