Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MCINNES SEES RED AT IBROX GAFFER PEDRO
RILED up Derek Mcinnes has labelled Rangers’ failure to finish above his Aberdeen team as ‘embarrassing’ and accused Ibrox boss Pedro Caixinha of playing to the gallery in an attempt to wind up the Dons. The Pittodrie boss is livid that Caixinha suggested Aberdeen will hit a downhill spiral next season. And as Mcinnes prepared to bring his team to Ibrox tonight, he launched a blistering counter attack. Mcinnes said: “I found it all a bit strange, I don’t know why he’s commenting so much on us. “If he thinks them being on the up and being brilliant by finishing above Aberdeen is good work by him then he’s way off the mark. “Any SPFL manager and I’m confident ANY with the budget he has, which is five or six times what we’ve got, should be finishing second. “They should be embarrassed they’ve not finished second. “The reality is that the job of a Rangers manager is to finish above Celtic. “So if he thinks he’s going to do a brilliant job by finishing above Aberdeen then he’ll quickly realise that’s not enough. Adam Rooney, meanwhile, isn’t exactly shaking in his boots at Caixinha’s warning his Rangers side will be gunning for them next season. Instead the Aberdeen striker insists it is the Light Blues who should be worried because the Dons will be even stronger. The 29-year-old said: “We don’t pay too much attention to what other people say – we never have. “We have always focused on ourselves and that is something the gaffer is really keen on. We don’t worry about other clubs, we just focus on developing ourselves and getting better as a group. “We know no matter who we play we have a good chance of winning and hopefully that will lead to success like we’ve had this year. “We have been the second best in Scotland for the last number of years and that is our aim again this year. We want to finish with as many points as we can and hopefully we can go on to win a cup. If that is the case it will be our most successful season in a number of years. “I am sure the gaffer will add a number of bodies in the summer. “Hopefully we can improve and strengthen again next season and we can have an even better season and other teams can start worrying about catching us.”