Derry City must stop being the 'nearly men' says James McClean

And the Creggan man has backed Tiernan Lynch to be the man to bring that elusive league title to Foyleside.​

The Ireland centurion reiterated his desire to finish his playing career with his hometown club on this week's Talking Derry City podcast, claiming it's the 'next step' when his days at Wrexham eventually come to an end.

He's a regular visitor to his former stomping ground at Brandywell during the EFL off-season and he's formed a strong relationship with the current City boss.

Indeed, McClean revealed he's in regular contact with the Belfast man and 'admires' and shares his ideals and ambitions for Derry City Football Club.

"They were going well for a while then obviously hit a bit of a blip," he began. "They picked up again with two away wins in Dublin and beat Drogheda who have been a bit of a bogey team. Three big wins in a row.

"I think the problem with Derry is I think we're at the stage where it's no longer acceptable to be competing. We need to take that next step further.

"I've spoken to Tiernan quite a lot. I really like what he's trying to implement at Derry. I like how he goes about things and his ideas." Derry won the FAI Cup in 2023 under Ruaidhrí Higgins but it's the league title Derry fans have been craving since their last triumph back in 1997. And McClean insists it's time they started to bridge that gap.

"I'm confident he will get it right but it's about time we stopped being nearly men and accepting just competing.

"I think it's about time this club started winning things and with Tiernan in charge I hope that's the case for Derry and for Tiernan because, having spoken to him quite a lot, he's someone I get on really with and I admire what he's trying to do.

"We have a good relationship. We speak quite regularly. I'm not going into detail what we speak about but we have a good relationship and both have the same desire to see Derry win things and share that same passion for the club.

"There would be nobody more happier than me to see Tiernan and Derry win something and hopefully that's the case sooner rather than later."

He's 'loving life' at the Welsh outfit who achieved unprecedented success by rising from the National League to the Championship in three successive seasons under Hollywood owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney.

And while he's never hidden his desire to return to Derry City 'where it all started', he's hoping to prolong his fairytale story at Wrexham who have set their sights on reaching the Premier League.

When asked if it was still his intention to return to the League of Ireland with Derry in the future, he responded: "I think that all depends on Wrexham. I'm enjoying life at Wrexham and obviously with Junior [his son] being at Crewe, the longer I'm at Wrexham it makes sense because I'm loving life there.

"But all good things one day have to come to an end. Whenever that is, the next step for me is to come home and play for Derry but whenever that is, that's not up to me. We'll see," he smiled.