Aidan Fitzmaurice
speaker
604 appearances
3 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2026
last heard 4d ago
Aidan Fitzmaurice’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 3 in all, peaking in Sep 2026 with 1.
Appearances
buy Tiernan Lynch, they pick McLean. And so I thought, well, things will settle down now. So this is the plot twist. This is the bit that you didn't see coming. They want them both out. Yeah, and that's why it is. And the complications as well is within the balance within the team. It's not just James. There's two McLeans, Patrick, like his brother Patrick played at the game of the weekend. How's he been doing? He's played okay. But again, you read, I read some comments by Derry fans critical, but I think that was, they just wanted to dislike him. Anytime I've seen Patrick McLean, I think he's been being pretty, pretty solid. Yeah.
But if you look at the game on, it's going to be a fascinating game away to UCD on Friday. It'd be interesting to see the Derry support because one factor in their slump this season has been, I mean, the away crowds just fell off a cliff one game. I saw them away to Shelburne. I read your piece, 35 fans. I mean, that's...
I can't remember, you know, with the upsurge, the crowds have been up since COVID and generally most clubs bring, you know, three, four, five hundred on a Friday night, you know, to bring 35. That was a symptom of how the team were doing. No, but that's friends and family, you know, that's... Yeah, so... But so, do you believe it when you hear from...
Did he have that in? If I was Derry City after his first appearance, I just thought it was a bad look for a player to be in RTE studio until maybe 1 or 2am and then driving home and driving into training the next day. I thought it was a very poor look for Derry as a club to have a player, a professional player. This isn't somebody who's part-time and it needs the appearance fee from RTE. This is, I just thought it was, you talk about having a focus.
James, to me, shouldn't have been doing punditry during the World Cup, as simple as that. And I think they had enough reasons to look at his contract and to see, had he brought the club into disrepute with his comments, I wonder what would have happened if this had happened at Sherbrooke Grovers, for example. How would Sherbrooke Grovers, either Stephen Bradley as an individual, or Sherbrooke Grovers if his club had acted? Because I think Sherbrooke Grovers would have taken action about this and said, I don't know, is there a rule in players' contracts about social media posting? I presume there is.
about social media activity. But if you could argue that a player brought his club into disrepute, I'm not saying James did in this case, but if somebody was to look at that and say, well, we believe that your social media activity is bringing our club into disrepute or damaging our club, that would have implications for the contract. They didn't do that all along. So that's why I am told that it wasn't, the injury situation isn't just a way that something has clicked. I don't think Jerry said as well, Philip O'Doherty makes the decisions. There is a board, but Philip O'Doherty makes the decisions. He's the main backer.
And what do we know about the reality of McLean's body? He's fine. Well, again, speaking to somebody who spoke to him the day that this broke, he was, you can see his video, he's in the home gym, he's in the gym every day, that he is physically fit in his head. Now, we've heard this before from players who, we've had Ronnie Whelan and Jason McAteer at World Cups where they told themselves they were fit and they weren't actually. But in his head, he's not carrying weight. But he was posting about like his having to retire. He was one bad consultation away from retirement a month ago.
But he came back from that to play. So I don't know how you can go from start. I think he played an error against Scarys in the FAI Cup. How you can play an error, albeit against a non-league team, but you can play an error in an FAI Cup tie and then three weeks later be unfit to be a professional footballer. Yeah, I don't know. It's just, I mean, he may be getting injections to get through a game. He may be doing all sorts to get through a game out of desperation. I've just...
McLean saying he's good, Derry saying he's not good. Obviously, two versions there. Yeah, but Derry can't decide that. You know, that's why they need a doctor to do it. And the procedures are there through the PFEI. This has happened before. There was a case last year, I'm not going to name the player, but the situation where the club wanted to cancel a player's contract and they went through that process. You find a doctor.
Both parties approve, independent of both parties, but both parties approve to a doctor who doesn't look at the player, he doesn't look at the league table. He's simply the same as if he was looking at somebody in a warehouse or in any workplace situation. He assesses their physical ability and that wasn't done with James. It's probably back to your point about...
year results haven't been good the fans on Lynch's back they had an open training session today as part of the Derry failout that should have been a great occasion I think there's an awareness that they have lost that League of Ireland is tough Joe when there's money involved you can lose a lot of goodwill Dundalk found this exactly when the money rolled into Dundalk the Americans came in
because everything went professional and full-time. They lost the goodwill of people who sell programmes, who sell lotto tickets, who make the tea, who do turnstiles. They were all turned away by the largesse of the peak six years. And a similar thing has happened at Derry. They need to try and get fans back on site. That open training session today was a chance to do that. And there's been good news stories. Derry have had, I saw them again, Shamrock Rovers a couple of weeks ago. They had a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old playing for the first team, academy graduates. I think that's what people want to see more than 34-year-olds. I'm not saying James McLean in that case, but
ex you know pros coming back to Derry from England they want to see kids playing for the team and locals and back of all this if Derry were winning probably wouldn't matter but the fact that the bottom table they have been poor not great results in Europe it's just been a poor poor season
The difference here is it's Derry City and James McLean. It's his hometown club, his club he started at, where he wants to do what James wants to do well for Derry City. This isn't, you know, some, for example, Romanian, you know, mercenary playing for an Irish club who just wants to take as much money as he can. It does mean a lot to James to play for Derry City. Maybe too much. Maybe that's why it's reached this point. He really wants Derry to do well. I think that could maybe knock heads together. I think that little bit of...
a day or two just to clear the air. They have a handy week in that they have UCD. Now, that could come back and bite me at 10 o'clock on Friday night when UCD beat them 2-0. They should have a handy week. It's not like they're going into a game away to Sharma Grovers. They should be able to clear this. But I think the fact that it is his hometown team, there should be somebody who can step in. It might be the PFAI who might, somebody to mediate and go, look lads, everybody's losing here. James is losing, Derry City are losing, the fans, the team.
the incoming manager everybody's losing here can we fix this can we try and make this right get to the end of the season and then see and if at the end of the season James's body has more miles on the clock more games if that it's a time to step away I do think the fact that it means more to James
James doesn't want to see Derry City in the bottom half. He doesn't want to see Derry City beaten by UCD in the Cup on Friday night, missing out on Europe. So I think that might just, the heartstrings, a day or two just to cool the air and say, look, let's take a breath here. Can we fix this? But certainly James will, if Derry proceed with the plan to terminate his contract, James McLean will not take that line down.
excited now I mean this is a big story in the UK Daily Mail have a big piece about this today but of course it's all poppy poppy it's half the piece most of the piece is about rehash of stuff about James but James McLean is a name in the UK and people will will be be watching this what are they saying we were right about this guy all along he's trouble
They link in the fact, none of the stories from the media here have mentioned the poppy. We don't care. That's an old story. But the headline in the Daily Mail, what Daily Mail readers in the UK will be reading tomorrow is poppy protester James McLean in trouble again. That's how it will be spun. And that may end up on BBC. It's on Sky. It becomes a story.
But certainly seeing the footage coming from, I can't remember the last time, Joe, that I saw, you know, camera crews turning up at training. I've never seen this. It was like we had transported over to Cheshire. And like, you know, managers are sacked all the time and you clear out, you know, when somebody is sacked by a club, you clear out your office.
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