Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes waited nine years to land Matty Kennedy

Derek McInnes has revealed he’s been tracking Aberdeen’s new signing Matty Kennedy since the player was a 16 year old embarking on his career at Kilmarnock.
St Johnstone's Matty Kennedy has signed a pre-contract with Aberdeen. Picture: Ross MacDonald / SNSSt Johnstone's Matty Kennedy has signed a pre-contract with Aberdeen. Picture: Ross MacDonald / SNS
St Johnstone's Matty Kennedy has signed a pre-contract with Aberdeen. Picture: Ross MacDonald / SNS

Now nine years later the Dons manager has finally secured the St Johnstone winger on a three-year deal under freedom of contract that is due to start in the 
summer.​

McInnes hasn’t given up hope of bringing the former Everton and Cardiff City player in during the current transfer window if they can agree a switch with the Perth club.​

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Saints manager Tommy Wright rejected their initial offer of a player swap and, after waiting this long to work with Kennedy, McInnes is willing to wait a little bit longer if a compromise cannot be reached. ​

“I remember Matty scoring a brilliant goal against my Bristol City team in a pre-season game at Kilmarnock,” said McInnes. “He was 16 at the time and came off the bench to score a worldie. ​

“So I have watched his career since then. He got his move to Everton not long after he played against us that day. I have picked up on him a load of times, watching how he was getting on. ​

“He had a lot of loans when he was down in England and the reports we had on him were mixed at that time but when he came to St Johnstone he really impressed us. ​

“We are always keen to look at players in our own league who we think can improve us, so we kept in touch with his agent over the last 18 months. ​And, when we knew he was going to run out of contract, he was one we were always going to try for, but I have too much respect for St Johnstone to go pushing it. It would be up to them to come to us if they want to do something [before the summer].” ​

McInnes admits he was just relieved to get the initial contract done after Hearts made a late bid to hijack the deal by offering Christophe Berra in a player swap. ​

He added: “With the interest from other clubs we had to move quicker on it than we had thought but having 
spoken to Matty, I was encouraged by how interested he was in coming here and thankfully his word was as good as ours. ​

“I didn’t think his head would be turned, but you never know for sure. I have been there before but we stayed in touch with him and got it done. The added complication came from us being in Dubai but we managed to move and get it done when we landed back here on Tuesday.” ​

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McInnes has already signed Dylan McGeouch from Sunderland during the this window and is also set to snap up teenage midfielder Mark Gallagher after agreeing a five-figure fee with Ross County.​

The Aberdeen manager is also delighted that expected bids for Scott McKenna, Sam Cosgrove and Lewis Ferguson have so far failed to materialise, a situation he is hoping won’t change before the 
window closes.​

However, he has warned any interested parties not to leave any offers until the last minute – like Aston Villa did when they offered £7 million for McKenna on a previous deadline day – or the result will be the same.​

He added: “The McKenna deal with Aston Villa was the right deal, but it just wasn’t the right time. It gave us a few hours to scramble about. ​From that point of view, if anybody is going to show their hand then we’d prefer for them to do it early. It still doesn’t mean to say that it’s something we’d do.”