WHAT A DRAG!
Rangers prepare their move for McInnes but he hits out at the handling of Ibrox saga
DEREK McInnEs last night admitted he is unhappy with the way five weeks of Rangers speculation has dragged on.
The Aberdeen manager is expected to become the subject of an official approach from the Ibrox club this week, but expressed unhappiness with the way the saga has been conducted.
Despite being reduced to ten men after Ryan Jack was sent off, Rangers still held on for a 2-1 victory yesterday — the Pittodrie side’s second defeat in four days to their manager’s prospective new employers.
And McInnes later admitted his frustration over the unsettling impact of the constant links to the post.
‘I made my position clear a few weeks ago and this has been ongoing,’ said
the Dons boss after watching goals from Danny Wilson and Josh Windass help Rangers leapfrog his side into second place in the Premiership. ‘It just feels as if it has dragged on and dragged on.
‘I’m not happy with how things have been played out.
‘I know you boys have a job to do and must be getting fed some sort of stuff, so there has been plenty of encouragement to run stories.
‘Ex-players seem to know a lot more than everybody else. Everybody seems to be in the know and, every other day, there is someone giving an opinion on my future and what Rangers are doing.
‘It hasn’t been as straightforward as it should have been over the last few weeks.
‘Today it was good to get the game out of the way, and play and try to win the match.
‘The motivation was clear for everybody. My job is to try to get a winning team on the pitch — not to constantly fend off questions you guys need to ask.’
McInnes recently endorsed comments from Aberdeen chairman Stewart Milne which suggested he was staying put. However, asked yesterday if he stood by that sentiment, the Dons boss added: ‘It’s wrong for me to make a comment on speculation or assumption.
‘I am manager of Aberdeen and my job is to get a winning team on the pitch. That’s all I’ve ever done.’
After going two goals down following Jack’s red card, teenage substitute Frank Ross dragged Aberdeen back into the game with a stunning free-kick on 65 minutes.
However, the Dons could not find a way to make their possession pay off — and Rangers held on much to the home fans’ frustration.
Aberdeen goalkeeper Joe Lewis refused to blame back-to-back defeats to the Ibrox club on the uncertainty over his manager’s future, however, and claimed the Pittodrie players have no idea what’s going on.
‘We are professional players and form drops for a variety of reasons,’ he insisted. ‘You can pin it on anything you want — and the press want to pin it on things we don’t want to talk about.
‘He (McInnes) consults the players and tries to help them improve — but the speculation hasn’t had an effect on us.
‘We need to improve for a variety of reasons but all the talk hasn’t had an effect.’
Asked if he expected McInnes to stay as Rangers prepare to make their move, the Englishman shrugged: ‘You’ll have to ask people in the know. I know as much as you do.
‘He’s certainly focused on what he wants to do. He’s been focused on us and we’ve been working hard.
‘We haven’t changed what we’ve been doing at all, so that’s as much as I can say.
‘Losing him would be a blow as he’s a good manager — but it’s football and whatever happens, we are not in control of that. We just need to get on with whatever happens.
‘I don’t want to get involved in things which ultimately might or might not happen. We’ll take it as it comes. Hopefully, they (Rangers) will appoint a manager this week and we can all move on with things.
‘We need to be professional — I need to try to keep the ball out of the net. We can’t control who the manager will be. We just have to knuckle down on things we can control.’