Derek so sick of ‘obsession’ with his Rangers link

DEREK McInnes, annoyed at a media persistence to link him with the vacant manager’s job at Rangers, which he described as “an obsession”, has endorsed the words of his chairman, Stewart Milne, that he is happy to remain at Aberdeen.

McInnes was thought to be a leading contender to replace Pedro Caixinha, sacked by the Ibrox outfit after just 229 days in charge, but no appointment has been made and when Milne issued a statement on Thursday that his manager would not be leaving, it brought to a close weeks of speculation.

And McInnes felt compelled to underline those remarks as he wondered why Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers hadn’t been questioned over whether he might be the next Everton manager.

“I want to reiterate what the chairman said,” McInnes stated. “I speak to him every other day and relationships are key to me.

“He wanted to put something out, he spoke to me about it and I was happy for him to do that.

“I have never been one who feels the need to react to speculation and I don’t see how I can pick and choose.

“I’m getting asked all the time about this job or that job.

“A month ago I was asked about the Scotland job and I answered one question about it so everyone was happy with that.

“Nobody has really asked me about West Brom.

“Nobody is asking the Celtic manager if he’s interested in Everton or any other job that has come up every week.

“But there has been this obsession with the Rangers job.

“If people want to know about the Rangers job I would suggest they go down to Glasgow and ask them about it and not to be speaking to me or my players about it.

“Has it angered me? Not initially because you can’t control the speculation and in the past I have usually answered it and we have moved on.

“But that doesn’t seem to be good enough.

“So I would reinforce everything the chairman has said.

“I am very happy here, I have a job I’m focused on here.”

The Dons boss also took a swipe at Kilmarnock striker Kris Boyd over his criticism of Aberdeen’s Kenny McLean and Graeme Shinnie following their inclusion in the Scotland squad for the international against the Netherlands at Pittodrie two weeks ago.

Boyd thought Shinnie not good enough for such a level of football and McInnes questioned why his club had allowed such opinions about fellow footballers.

“I have no problem with anyone in the media giving his opinion and Kris Boyd is paid by several outlets to do that,” he said.

“I don’t agree with what he said just like I don’t agree with a lot of what pundits say.

“Where it crosses the boundaries is that he’s speaking like an ex-player; so that’s where it doesn’t feel right.”