Aberdeen keen to keep all their aces in the pack

‘The real surprise is we haven’t had more interest in our star players. We are looking to add to our squad but, right now, I’m just looking forward to coming out of January’

AS dozens of new skyscrapers rise to crowd a skyline dominated by the planet’s tallest structure, the Burj Khalifa, Dubai resembles the world’s largest building site. How ironic then that Derek McInnes should take his squad to the Middle-Eastern metropolis at a time when his own construction project is under threat.

Having spent three-and-a-half years carefully piecing together a team, the Aberdeen manager suddenly finds himself straining to keep it all together as a raft of potential suitors attempt to cherrypick Pittodrie’s prize assets.

First came the Mail on Sunday’s revelation that Hearts were looking to snare winger Niall McGinn on a pre-contract.

Then followed the news that Jonny Hayes was a target for Cardiff City, a £500,000 bid finally arriving at the tail end of the week.

Throw in the fact that a clutch of others — including captain Ryan Jack and long-serving stalwart Andy Considine have drifted into the final six months of their contracts — and the sands are threatening to shift under McInnes’s feet.

The Dons squad traded the Scottish winter for a training camp in the sunshine of the Arabian Peninsula but McInnes admits the dawn of 2017 and the January transfer window has seen his stewardship of the club drift into uncharted territory.

‘Right now, I’m just looking forward to coming out of January,’ admitted McInnes. ‘It will be good to get back into action in the Scottish Cup and, in terms of the window, we will be looking to add to our squad, not lose anybody.

‘Hopefully, at least one will come in and then we can look forward.’

Aberdeen have worked hard to tie their players to long-term contracts but that has involved stretching the budget to the limit.

The board’s strict insistence that there will be no return to the days burdened by debt means there is no great room for negotiation.

Once richer outfits become involved — and make no mistake that a Championship club like Cardiff have the means to significantly enhance Hayes’ personal terms — it could become impossible for McInnes to hang on to his best players.

‘I think loyalty and consistency has helped us over the past few years,’ he added. ‘We have been able to hold on to our better players and the real surprise is that we haven’t had more interest in them.

‘Unlike other clubs, maybe we don’t promote that or try to court interest. We want to keep our team intact for as long as possible.

‘We are confident that we can retain a few of our players who are out of contract because I think we have created an environment where the players enjoy it.

‘But, financially, we can’t compete with a lot of other clubs and we are well aware of that.’

McInnes chatted to Neil Warnock about his interest in Hayes last week and appreciated the Cardiff manager’s upfront approach. Similarly, he appreciated a call made by Hearts director of football Craig Levein regarding McGinn.

‘We totally get it,’ continued McInnes. ‘If Niall was a Hearts player and was coming to the same stage of his contract, then I would be doing my best to get him to Aberdeen.

‘We haven’t made any special plans on account of the interest from Hearts but we will talk. We made plans to speak with Niall and his agent later in January and that remains the case. I am confident that if he is going to stay in Scottish football beyond that, then it will be with Aberdeen.

‘He might want to try something different in another country but we’ll be doing our best to keep him here.’

After a restless summer in which he represented Northern Ireland at Euro 2016 before flying straight to Aberdeen to aid the club in the Europa League qualifiers, McGinn is currently on holiday in fulfilment of a long-standing agreement with his manager.

Yet although he has not travelled to Dubai with his team-mates, he remains integral to McInnes’s plans for the second half of the season.

‘There is no player in Scottish football who has had less rest than Niall over the past couple of years, so it’s fair that he now gets a proper two-week break.

‘Niall has been so honest with his work and between Northern Ireland and ourselves we have been very demanding of him.

‘The prospect of having him properly refreshed for the second half of the season excites me.’

Whether McInnes can hang on to Hayes is less certain. Aberdeen kicked out Cardiff’s initial offer on Friday but the Welsh club may decide to return with an improved offer.

Hayes is contracted to Aberdeen until the summer of next year but, now 29 and a full Republic of Ireland international, his window of opportunity may be narrow.

If Aberdeen are to sell, McInnes would prefer it to happen in the summer. He explained: ‘I get close to my players and I’m really fond of Jonny. I would like nothing better than to see him move on and take his career to another level.

‘Financially, he could earn a lot more elsewhere and you wouldn’t grudge him that. But I am here to look after Aberdeen.

‘Our discussions on a new contract are ongoing. He has intimated he is very happy here and there is still a possibility he could sign a longer deal. We certainly wouldn’t want to lose him halfway through a season. We don’t need to sell. We are debtfree and we have lots to play for.

‘We want to finish second and win the Scottish Cup. To do that, we want to keep our good players.

‘I’m not surprised there is interest. For three-and-a-half years he has been a really top performer.

‘I’m sure there will come a time when Jonny will move on to something else but, hopefully, that won’t happen this month.’

The previous two seasons saw Aberdeen emerge from the January window hopeful of sustaining a title challenge to Celtic but, with the appointment of Brendan Rodgers moving the champions out of sight, Aberdeen have had to shift goals.

Soundly beaten by Celtic in the League Cup Final, the aim is to go one better in the Scottish Cup and prevail over the other half of Glasgow in the race for the Premiership’s runners-up spot.

‘We are judged against Rangers and Celtic, who both have far greater resources,’ he acknowledges.

‘When we lost to both in the space of a week (in November) the criticism came flying at us.

‘That’s the game we are in and it’s the way it needs to be if we are trying to meet our aspirations.

‘We will need to go some to finish above Rangers because, as they are proving again in this window, they have the financial clout to do more work.

‘But, if you had said to me at the start of the season that we would have been 90 minutes away from winning the first trophy of the season and entered the new year with a game in hand to go second, I would have taken it.’