‘This fixture could be quite a rivalry in next few seasons’

ARCHIE KNOX believes today’s showdown between two of his former clubs represents an exciting new chapter of Rangers-Aberdeen rivalry.

While Pittodrie boss McInnes has led the Dons to the brink of second place and a William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final, new Ibrox manager Pedro Caixinha will look to further implement his own new methods on a faltering Rangers campaign.

Knox’s long-time managerial colleague Walter Smith touted McInnes as the No 1 contender to replace Mark Warburton at Ibrox.

However, the club tempted welltravelled Portuguese coach Caixinha from Qatar instead of testing Aberdeen’s resolve to retain McInnes much closer to home.

Since McInnes replaced Craig Brown and Knox in 2013, he has improved Aberdeen every season and now looks like threatening Rangers’ hopes of becoming the main challenger to Celtic’s throne.

‘Derek has done a fantastic job at Aberdeen and they wouldn’t have been happy if Rangers had come after him,’ said Knox. ‘And I assume Derek would have been interested.

‘But Rangers have chosen their man and have to go ahead with him and see how that develops. Aberdeen and Rangers could be quite a rivalry for the next few seasons.

‘What else can you do if you are Aberdeen? You really can’t compete with the size of the club and the players Celtic can attract with the Champions League.

‘You get the boy (Scott) Sinclair up playing for Celtic, Aberdeen can’t compete with that. Derek’s doing a fantastic job managing to hold on to the boys he’s got at Aberdeen.

‘A lot depends now on who Aberdeen lose. Peter Pawlett is leaving, Niall McGinn could go as well and that’s certainly a loss because since Derek put him up front he’s scored goals. It’s important Aberdeen don’t lose too many, you don’t want an exodus.

‘Their confidence is sky-high in that team and the players are performing like they don’t see anyone that can stand in their way.’

Knox took time out from analysing today’s encounter to take aim at the current climate of laptop management and new-age thinking.

The 69-year-old admits to being a bit of a ‘dinosaur’, but he insists the trend towards stats-driven football has caused the art of managerial instinct to suffer accordingly.

‘We maybe overdo all the analysis part of it,’ said Knox, who witnessed modern methods as assistant boss at Bolton to Sammy Lee after Sam Allardyce’s departure.

‘I know there’s been a lot of changes and you embrace all that in terms of fitness but you can get carried away with that side of things.

‘In our day, those lads had plenty fitness about them. The dinosaur bit comes in here but I think what you actually see tells you how these boys are actually performing.

‘You can’t tell a lack of confidence in a boy by stats. Maybe you can tell they haven’t run or sprinted as far. But you need to know the boy.

‘You need to know the individual players and what they are capable of, what they’re giving you or whether they are holding something back.’ Know (left) added: ‘That bit is easy if you have the manager’s eye or your experience will tell you that. So you can’t rely just on stats if it’s going to dictate how you pick a team. Bolton had about 20 staff going to away games — sport scientists, analysts, masseurs, warm-up guys, even a boy to dish out the water.’