McInnes is still hungry for success at Aberdeen

The Wearside club have placed McInnes high on their wanted list to replace David Moyes and could make an approach next week. Ahead of today’s Scottish DEREK McINNES claims he still has the drive to achieve more at Aberdeen after being installed as favourite to take charge of Sunderland. Cup final, Celtic counterpart Brendan Rodgers claimed the Dons manager was ‘perfect’ for a club seeking to bounce back after relegation from the English Premier League. However, McInnes made it clear he would only consider a future exit from Pittodrie if all the circumstances were right. The 45-year-old — who

denied the Sunderland speculation had been any distraction in his preparations for Hampden — previously had an unhappy spell in England with Bristol City. ‘There is a natural end point for a lot of people in football but I don’t feel it is now,’ said McInnes of his Aberdeen tenure. ‘I still feel there is more to achieve. I’m protective of my own career. ‘There have been opportunities to move in the past but I have never been in any real rush to leave Aberdeen. ‘If we continue to do our jobs well, there could then be opportunities in the future but a lot of things would have to be right for me to consider leaving. ‘I made a bad decision leaving St Johnstone for Bristol City. Although I actually feel I did a lot of my best work as a manager when I was at Bristol City, sometimes results don’t always play out and back that up. ‘But I feel keeping that team up from being in a really poor situation and with the level of player we had, I thought we did extremely well to keep them in the division. ‘Any manager can only be as strong as the team round about him. The spotlight and the focus over the next few weeks will be on me, the recruitment team and the board to bring reinforcements and a level of players in. ‘We are recruiting from a position of strength. We can offer players a lot. We have European football and the chance to play in cup finals.’ Defeated 3-0 by Celtic in November’s League Cup final, McInnes will have to inflict a first domestic defeat upon Brendan Rodgers’ side to deny them a Treble. The financial power of the

Parkhead club raises obvious questions of whether he has reached a glass ceiling by establishing Aberdeen as best of the rest. ‘I think there are always things you can aim for,’ added McInnes. ‘We broke our points record this season, which was pleasing, and we have the Europa League to look forward to. We want to do a bit more in that competition. ‘And there are Cup finals, we want to keep revisiting them and trying to win them. ‘Celtic will win the league again next season on the evidence we have in front of us. ‘But we can still be competitive and put demands on ourselves to do that. If we win the cup this weekend, then I’ll want to come back next year and do it again.’ Rodgers has previously backed McInnes to land a plum job in England and feels Sunderland would be wise to push through their interest. ‘I saw that (link) during the week and I think he is absolutely perfect for it,’ said Rodgers. ‘It is big club that has had a change and now needs someone who can go in there and who can organise, someone who has been at a big club — and Derek has been at big clubs. ‘He played at Rangers, he has been down in England, so he understands it. He had a difficult time in England, so he gets that. He has done a great job with Aberdeen. ‘He would go in, give them (Sunderland) a bit of life, get them organised. He can motivate players. ‘I think it would be brilliant for him if that is what he wanted to do. It is certainly a club of that magnitude — a big club, Sunderland. For me, he would be perfect.’