MILNE INSISTS DONS NEED A LITTLE HELP:
ABERDEEN chairman Stewart Milne has challenged Scottish football to help the resurgent Dons push newly beaten Celtic to the wire in the battle for the Premiership title.
The gap between the league leaders and Derek McInnes’ on-form side is now down to just two points, following the champions’ shock 4-0 loss at Hearts on Sunday.
That was Brendan Rodgers’ first domestic defeat as boss of Celtic but his side will be hoping to extend the gap to five when they host rock-bottom Partick Thistle in their game in hand at Parkhead tonight.
‘We are over halfway through the season and we are right on their tails,’ said Milne, without going so far as to suggest there will be a bona-fide title battle.
‘We have got to make sure we focus on our own games and results for the rest of the season. I think if we do that effectively, we will hopefully keep that pressure on right to the end.
‘We have been looking to cut that gap for the last three or four years, pushing the boundaries as far as we possibly can and looking to see how we can increase investment into the football side of the club.
‘I don’t think any of us are going to get carried away and start speaking about title challenges.
‘We just need to make sure that we take maximum points out of every game we play and then that will take care of itself as we move through the season.
‘What Derek has always been very keen to do is keep close, to keep the pressure on. We obviously are reliant on other clubs doing the same.
‘It was fantastic to see the performance from Hearts on Sunday and it was also encouraging to see the likes of St Johnstone coming back (from a goal down to beat Rangers 3-1 at Ibrox).
‘I think we’ve always said that if we’re going to rein in Celtic, we need four or five other clubs that are part of that, keeping the pressure on them right through to the end of the season.’
Aberdeen have lost their last eight meetings with Celtic, but blew away an on-form Hibs 4-1 at Pittodrie on Saturday, courtesy of a stunning hat-trick by former Parkhead winger Gary Mackay-Steven, to make it nine points from nine.
Milne believes Aberdeen are now playing their best football of the season after McInnes turned down the chance to manage Rangers. ‘The decision from Derek a few weeks ago and getting three straight wins after that was a massive boost for everyone,’ said the chairman. ‘That has been very evident in the players in the last two or three games.
‘We saw the initial response from the fans at the Dundee game. We’ve seen the response here on Saturday (against Hibs) and we’ve seen a response from the team. That’s how much Derek McInnes means to everyone associated with this club.
‘I think it culminated in our performance against Hibs, which was by far our best of the season.
‘That squad is starting to show what they are capable of. We have set up very effectively for the second half of the season.’
Milne has pledged to make money available for McInnes to bolster his squad in January if required. In the summer, McInnes recruited Stevie May, Mackay-Steven, Kari Arnason, Greg Tansey, Nicky Maynard and secured the loan captures of Greg Stewart, Dom Ball and Ryan Christie for a second spell from Celtic.
And, having forked out for major squad surgery, Milne expects a quiet winter window, saying: ‘We made a big investment in the summer. A lot of time, money and effort went into rebuilding the squad.
‘Derek does want to freshen up the squad a bit in the January window but it will be more of a freshening up than any radical changes in the squad.
‘We need to give these players a chance of showing what they’re capable of. The real planning is starting now for further changes that will have to be made in summer time.’
Meanwhile, Aberdeen’s annual general meeting saw the club post impressive financial figures. Operating profit was £533,000 — up from £448,000 — and turnover rose by almost £2million to a club record of £15.3m.
Milne now hopes to get the green light for a new £50m training facility and stadium at Kingsford that he says would set the Dons up for decades to come.
But there is opposition locally to the plan and Milne warned there is no fall-back if the proposal does not get past council planners in the New Year.
He said: ‘There cannot be a Plan B because the scale of investment both in time and cash to pursue an application like this is massive. By the time this goes to planning at the end of January, the club will have invested the best part of £750,000 in processing the application.
‘If we don’t get a positive decision in January, it will be a serious setback, even if we were successful in an appeal, as it would push the whole thing down the line quite a bit.
‘We are desperate to get these new facilities off the ground.
‘If we can get Kingsford delivered we will have a fantastic training facility, a great home for our community trust and a great stadium for the fans. It would give us a great base to build a much stronger club going forward.
‘If we can deliver the stadium, we will have set the club up for effectively the next 30 or 40 years.’