THE GAP WIDENS
McInnes admits ‘brilliant’ Bhoys will be even more difficult to catch up now
DEREK McInnEs has hailed Celtic’s destruction of Astana as a great result for scottish football, but admits their anticipated £30million windfall for reaching the Champions League group stage has made his task of catching them domestically so much harder.
The Aberdeen manager saw his side finish runners-up to Brendan Rodgers’ Invincibles in all three of scotland’s major competitions last season and has spent the summer remodelling his squad to offer an increased challenge.
Ironically, that has largely been done with the £1.2m raised by the sale of Jonny Hayes to the Treble winners, albeit that is still peanuts compared to the jackpot Celtic are expected to pick up for mixing with the elite in Europe.
McInnes was nearly as blown away as Astana by Celtic’s performance in Wednesday night’s 5-0 first-leg victory — but it also left him with a realistic appreciation of how tough it will be for Aberdeen to compete with them for honours, as an already huge financial gap increases.
‘It’s a brilliant result for scottish football but makes it more difficult for the rest of us as Celtic have the capacity and ability to strengthen if they want to,’ said the Dons manager.
‘It is difficult to try to get close to them, although Brendan only has two weeks to spend the money (before the closure of the transfer window) so, hopefully, he won’t spend all of it!
‘We have to applaud them for their performance. They’re not through yet but they are not going to lose a five-goal lead in the second leg.
‘The performance was so strong. It was a very mature display and they looked a threat every time they made it to the final third.
‘They look every bit as strong as last season, which is why I said Celtic will win the league if they reach those standards again.
‘It doesn’t stop us trying to be as competitive as we can be and making them really work for it.
‘We’ve made the signings which have given us confidence that we can have a successful season.
‘We’re not going to win every game but we have set out to be as good as we can be and we will, hopefully, get our reward for that.
‘If the players we have got produce performances, we believe there is success there for us.
‘I don’t feel disheartened but I get how difficult it will be for us to overcome Celtic.’
Aberdeen have already suffered the disappointment of a Europa League exit at the third qualifying round for a fourth successive season but they have made another solid start domestically.
They are through to the last 16 of the Betfred Cup and go into tomorrow’s home game versus Dundee having won their first two Premiership matches against Hamilton and Ross County.
McInnes is happy enough with that start after losing key players Ryan Jack, niall McGinn, Ash Taylor and Hayes in the summer — while using the Hayes money to add Gary Mackay-steven, stevie May and Kari Arnason, as well as Greg stewart and Ryan Christie on loan deals.
However, he admitted there will be no more additions during this transfer window.
‘We’re done, we’ve spent our money,’ said McInnes.
‘The chairman and the board have been very supportive but they needed to be.
‘The scrutiny was on the board, myself and the recruitment team to bring in players to maintain the standard and push on.
‘What was done needed to be done but I do feel as though we’ve spent the budget well.
‘We’ve spent the Jonny Hayes money well right across the board and if the transfer window closed tomorrow I’d be pretty comfortable with the squad I’ve got.
‘Right now, we have competition in every area of the pitch.’