Hayes says Dons need £20m to close gap
JONNY HAYES has estimated Aberdeen would have to spend £20million to bridge the gap with Celtic and challenge for the Ladbrokes Premiership title in future.
But the winger still believes the Pittodrie club can overcome their Parkhead rivals in the William Hill Scottish Cup final at Hampden later this month and finish another successful season on a massive high.
Derek McInnes’s side are currently nine points ahead of Rangers at the head of the Premiership table with just four games remaining and well on course to finish as the best of the rest for the fourth season running.
However, the North-east club is still a massive 27 points adrift of runaway winners Celtic and Hayes sees no prospect of them catching them any time soon.
Asked what it would take to pip them in the league, the Irish winger said: “About £20million I would say. It’s difficult. We know the calibre of players they have.
“They have young players like [Stuart] Armstrong and [Moussa] Dembele. If they improve again and have better seasons than this year again it’s going to be a difficult ask. We can’t do a lot about that.
“But we can beat them in a one-off game. We lost the League Cup final to them earlier this season because we were really bad that day. On the day of the cup final we didn’t show up. The way we played we would have lost to any other team in the Premiership.
“Not one player really came off the pitch with any credit. There were a lot of sloppy mistakes. There were a million and one reasons, but it’s hard to pinpoint what exactly went wrong. It could have been more than three.
“But we know we are a lot better than we showed that day. The Scottish Cup final is a one-off game and if we play to our best that’s all we can do.”