Derek McInnes tells Aberdeen: Back me in transfer market

Derek McInnes, left, congratulates Celtic manager Ronny Deila on his teams title success. Picture: PA

For the second successive year, Aberdeen’s status as best of the rest behind Celtic was formally confirmed yesterday as Ronny Deila’s reigning champions retained their crown with a 3-2 win over their closest rivals.

Aberdeen manager McInnes was left to bemoan the failure of any other side in the top flight to inflict telling damage on Celtic over the course of the campaign. Deila’s side have lost just three league games all season, two of them against Aberdeen.

McInnes is determined to oversee another serious tilt at the title next season which will see the return of Rangers to the top flight. In what appeared to be a pointed challenge to the Aberdeen hierarchy, he stressed the need for increased financial muscle to do so.

“The directors need to get it,” said McInnes. “We all need to get it. We don’t want to be a club who just wipes its brow and says ‘this is much better than what it has been’. It’s like being a player – if you are not working to improve, then you will become a poorer player. If we don’t work as a club, then we will get worse.

“It is important we have scope in the summer. We know the challenges ahead of us. We know we have to meet those head on.

“It is important we strive for that improvement. To sustain a league challenge we need good players to add to the ones we have got.

“There is a lot to like about my team at the moment but everybody will tell me what I need to bring in.

“We have a team of value on the pitch and a good togetherness. That can take you a long way as long as you keep adding to the quality. Hopefully, we get the backing and the opportunity to do just that. I believed we could have mounted a challenge this year. I thought Celtic would be poorer for losing