Aberdeen want to get Derek McInnes ‘tied down’ on new deal

Aberdeen vice chairman Dave Cormack has revealed the club intend to tie up Derek McInnes on a new long-term contract before the start of the new ?season.
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes. Picture: Craig Foy/SNSAberdeen manager Derek McInnes. Picture: Craig Foy/SNS
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes. Picture: Craig Foy/SNS

The Atlanta-based software tycoon insisted earlier this week that the Dons manager wasn’t interested in the vacant Scotland job.

Instead, Cormack believes that McInnes, who previously
rejected approaches by Sunderland and Rangers, has ambitions to take charge of an English Premier League team.

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However, he is convinced McInnes will be around long enough to extend his current deal with the Pittodrie club that still has another year to run.

Cormack said: “His aspirations would be to coach in the English Premier League but he’s totally committed to Aberdeen. There’s a trust between Derek and the board and we’ll get to that contract in due course.

“From our perspective we’ll probably get together over the next wee while.

“What we see day to day with Derek is someone that’s totally committed. It would be unfair of me to get into any detail about his contract but nobody is insecure about 
getting Derek tied down.

“You can never say never – football is a crazy world but Derek is looking forward to getting to Florida with his family next week and then getting back at it.”

The priority for McInnes will be rebuilding a squad that is set to lose up to nine players in the summer, including captain Graeme Shinnie who has already agreed to join Derby County.

The Dons manager has already claimed that will be tougher than when he took over a bottom-six team from Craig Brown six years ago.

McInnes has had less than 
£1 million to spend in the transfer market during that time and Cormack admits there won’t be much more money available in the future.

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But the club are on a strong financial footing despite the £50m being raised for the new training ground and stadium.

That’s why Cormack has pledged that the Aberdeen board will do what they can to help McInnes strengthen the side this summer and beyond.

He claimed: “We’ve added funds each and every year. We’ve doubled the budget. We added £1m two years ago to the budget. The money is there and we’ll see how the transfer window goes.

“The important thing for us is that we have to invest in the success of the first team, but we can’t find £250m to compete with Celtic over five years.

“Our competition are Hearts and Hibs from a financial perspective. They have benefited from bringing players through and then at the right time monetising that and reinvesting.

“The good news is that we have value in our squad now.

“We turned down £6.5m for Scott McKenna on two transfer windows. I don’t think outside Celtic and Rangers any club would contemplate doing that.

“But that was Derek’s request and it was right that we supported that while none of the money we brought in from the sale of Jonny Hayes and Kenny McLean was siphoned off.

“It was all reinvested because we have to look multi-year.”