Derek McInnes ‘not happy’ over continued link with Rangers

Derek McInnes has expressed his dismay at the protracted nature of Rangers’ search for a new manager which may yet lead to him being offered the job.

The Aberdeen boss suffered his second defeat in five days against the Ibrox club yesterday as goals from Danny Wilson and Josh Windass earned a 2-1 win for the side under the interim guidance of Graeme Murty.

It lifts Rangers, who played with ten men for most of the second half after Ryan Jack was sent off, into second place in the Premiership table, ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference. The fixture was again overshadowed by renewed speculation over McInnes’ future.

It is now almost six weeks since Rangers sacked Pedro Caixinha and it is understood they are poised to make an approach this week for McInnes, who is under contract at Pittodrie until 2020.

The 46-year-old, who recently stressed his ongoing commitment to his current job, has become increasingly exasperated by the situation.

“I made my position clear a few weeks ago and this has been ongoing,” said McInnes. “It just feels as if it has dragged on and dragged on.

“I’m not happy with how things have been played out. It’s not been great the way it’s all been handled and I’m not particularly pleased about it.

“I know you boys have a job to do and must be getting fed some sort of stuff, so there has been plenty of encouragement to run stories. Ex-players seem to know a lot more than everybody else.

“Everybody seems to be in the know and every other day there is someone giving an opinion on my future and what Rangers are doing.

“It’s not been as straightforward as it should have been the last few weeks. It’s certainly not doing us any favours.

“It’s been the elephant in the room for the last five or six weeks. The chairman came out and said something last week. I’m not going to stand here and make any assumptions about what another club wants to do.

“You can see today how passionate we are about getting a result for Aberdeen.

“It was good to get the game out of the way and play the game and try to win the game.

“The motivation was clear for everybody. My job is to try and get a winning team on the pitch – not to constantly fend off questions you guys need to ask. It’s wrong for me to make a comment on speculation or assumption. I am manager of Aberdeen and my job is to get a winning team on the pitch. That’s all I’ve ever done.”

Aberdeen goalkeeper Joe Lewis, pictured, admitted he and his team-mates are keen to see the saga resolved one way or another before their next match against Dundee at Dens Park on Friday night.

“You’ll have to ask the people in the know [whether he will still be in charge on Friday],” said Lewis.

“It would be a blow to lose him as he’s a good manager but it’s football and whatever happens, we are not in control of that. We just need to get on with whatever happens.

“I don’t want to get involved in things which might or might not happen. We’ll take it as it comes. Hopefully Rangers will appoint a manager this week and we can all move on with things.”