MILNE: I RESPECTED DEREK SO MUCH I WOULD HAVE LET HIM JOIN GERS IF HE WANTED TO GO
SAYS STEWART MILNE
Aberdeen chief Stewart Milne had watched the Derek McInnes speculation build for weeks.
Day after day his manager’s name was linked with the position vacated by Pedro Caixinha at Rangers.
Milne didn’t want to lose McInnes. He tried to build barriers to repel the Ibrox advances.
Eventually last week the Light Blues broke through and it looked like McInnes was away.
But Milne breathed a sigh of relief after a fraught 48 hours when the Pittodrie gaffer decided on Thursday that he would stay put.
Despite trying to keep Rangers at bay, the Aberdeen chairman admits he WOULD have let McInnes go if he had decided his heart lay with the Ibrox club. That’s the level of respect both men have for each other.
Milne said: “I think Derek made up his mind he wanted to stay at Aberdeen as opposed to saying, ‘ I don’t want to go to Rangers.’
“If he had made up his mind that he definitely wanted to go to them, we would have found a way to make that happen.
“But he has started something at Pittodrie, has been very much part of the progress we’ve made in recent seasons and clearly sees a lot can be accomplished in the coming two or three years.
“He’s a proud guy and he’s also a demanding guy who knows what he wants. But he has brought a great deal to the club and has a real energy and belief. Everyone can clearly see how he has instilled that into the team.”
Milne admits all the drama put him through the wringer. And he revealed why he took the decision to issue a statement that McInnes was going nowhere before Rangers made their approach.
It was designed to stop the endless questioning about the affair and was endorsed just 24 hours later by McInnes himself.
Milne said: “I thought that by then the speculation had been going on for the best part of four weeks and I sensed it was having an effect throughout the club.
“In addit ion, people were approaching me and asking what was going on and what could we do to try and bring it to a head. I thought the statement would kill the thing off and it did for maybe a week or so but then it was resurrected again.
“It appears Rangers had a reason to keep the matter it alive and we don’t really know when they made up their minds that they were going to go for Derek.
“The first we knew for definite was
when the approach came in on Tuesday night.
“We value what Derek has done for the club in the four-and-a-half years he has been with us and we were certainly not going to give up without a fight.
“However, we did accept that, at the end of the day, Derek would decide where he wanted to be.
“The point he has always made is that it is very difficult to consider a hypothetical situation.
“It’s only when reality kicks in and you are confronted with a definite scenario that you can sit down and think things through.
“Up until Tuesday night, nobody knew that was ever going to come.
“Most people believed that after Rangers played us at Pittodrie on Sunday, they would have made their move very quickly afterwards.
“Nothing happened on Monday nor all day Tuesday and then the call came on Tuesday night and that was really when things crystallised and Derek knew for sure they wanted him for the post.
“That’s why, after we had talked the whole thing through, we reached the conclusion that it was best that he took a bit of time away from his work to spend with his family and think about the options before him.
“Over that 48-hour period we kept in touch. I had an immediate conversation with Derek right after the call came in from Rangers asking for permission to speak with him.
“Derek is a clear thinker. He’ll not rush into anything and the approach was the first time he had something real to consider. Everything else had been speculation.
“He did that and on Thursday afternoon he called me and gave me his decision.
“That’s football, you never know what’s around the corner. There was a disappointment regarding the time it went on but we got the right result at the end of the day which is the most important thing.”
Multi-millionaire housebuilder Milne and McInnes have the kind of rapport which many at the club have likened to the relationship Sir Alex Ferguson enjoyed with his chairman, Dick Donald, during his time in charge at Pittodrie.
Milne readily admitted that he feeds off his manager’s energy and described McInnes as more than just a football coach.
He said: “I admit that he gives me a lift and that’s why I enjoy working with him so much.
“We give each other energy. When you’re working alongside people like Derek you tend to thrive on it.
“It would have been a huge loss to us had he decided to leave and join Rangers.”