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Derry City have reached the point where the noise around the club has become louder than the football being played on the pitch. Tiernan Lynch is gone, James McClean has been firing messages into the public domain, and Roddy Collins has been standing on the other side returning them with interest. It's been entertaining from the outside, but for a club with the so-called ambition of Derry’s, with the investment and support into both the playing squad and the club itself, it could not be allowed to continue. Lynch’s departure was necessary. His work at Larne, where he won back-to-back league titles and took the club into the league phase of European competition, is to be applauded. He also guided Derry to second place last season. But football management is about lots of things - results being the big one. Timing and momentum are both important as well, but keeping a group together can be as important as the ability at your disposal, and all those points had deserted him at the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium. Derry were expected to challenge Shamrock Rovers for the title. Instead, after 26 league games, they have won only six, are sitting sixth and are closer to the relegation play-off than the European places. The squad had been heavily backed, yet the performances lacked identity and certainly lacked consistency. There had also been enormous player turnover. At some point, instability stops being an explanation and becomes part of the manager’s record. The most damaging development was that authority appeared to be draining away from the dugout. McClean’s social media post after the European defeat to Rijeka defended the players’ effort before concluding that there was "clearly an issue somewhere". When a senior player publicly questions the direction of a team, the manager is left in an almost impossible position. Lynch’s subsequent refusal to discuss McClean only added to the sense that the relationship had broken down. I like James McClean. I admire what he has achieved, the courage with which he has represented himself and the fact that he has never hidden behind safe, manufactured answers. He returned to Derry because the club matters deeply to him. He has also been playing through a serious hip problem, and the dream homecoming clearly has not unfolded as he would have expected. That context deserves sympathy, but it doesn’t excuse everything. A player can be right about a problem and still be wrong about how he addresses it. Dressing rooms need honesty, especially from experienced players, but the conversations should happen inside the training ground. Once it moves online, the manager is undermined, teammates can be dragged into the story and supporters are left trying to interpret every sentence. McClean’s response to Roddy Collins was another example of passion or temper running ahead of judgement. Collins had described him as the worst signing in Derry City’s history, which was always an exaggerated line designed to provoke a reaction. McClean, being McClean, supplied one, saying Collins had "stunk the place out" at Derry and mocking his managerial achievements. I like Roddy too. Irish football is healthier when people are prepared to offer strong opinions rather than saying nothing or very little in carefully chosen words. Roddy has lived the game, managed in difficult environments and understands how to create debate. He is also, without doubt, a natural entertainer. But calling McClean Derry’s worst ever signing was unfair and ignored the injuries, expectations and wider dysfunction around the team. McClean has had it tough since returning home, but he didn’t create every problem at the club. The irony is that both men share more similarities than either might enjoy admitting. They are emotional, outspoken, certain of their own view and never likely to walk away from an argument. That makes them compelling characters, but it also means neither is naturally inclined to lower the temperature. It’s hard to think we have heard the last of the back and forth between them. Derry now need calm. Lynch had to go because results, authority and belief had all deteriorated. The club must appoint a manager strong enough to lead a dressing room containing strong personalities and a manager with a definitive approach to winning games. McClean still has something to offer, but his fire must be directed towards helping Derry recover rather than fighting battles in public. And Roddy, well Roddy needs to get himself into Louis Copeland and stop taking topless videos of himself!