I’m sure I will get a chance to work down south again, says McInnes
Aberdeen manager is not short of ambition as he prepares to take on Celtic today, writes JJ Bull
Derek McInnes was the first West Bromwich Albion player to be sent off in the Premier League. He laughs when reminded of this. “I’ve been sent off twice in my career. Once against Berwick Rangers and once against Man United!”
If you plan to do something, do it with gusto. McInnes, 46, is the much-coveted manager of Aberdeen, a former Scotland international who started out at Greenock Morton, played in the Champions League for Rangers and captained West Brom in the Premier League. In charge at Pittodrie since March 2013, he has taken the club from mid-table mediocrity in the Scottish Premiership to winning silverware and offering a genuine challenge in what looked like a one-horse title race.
How? “You’ve got to have an idea, an identity to your team,” says the former midfielder, whose side entertain league leaders Celtic today. “I’ve always felt a team is an extension of the manager. I wanted a team with attitude, pace, energy.
“In every team I played in, there were always better players than me, but I knew the importance that I felt from my team-mates towards me and what I could bring to them. You need certain types in your dressing room. It’s not all about being a good player.”
On the park, McInnes was a natural leader. Neat and tidy on the ball, he worked tirelessly off it – qualities evident in his current captain, Graeme Shinnie. “He demonstrates everything I want my team to be,” says McInnes.
Shinnie, like McInnes, has been mostly overlooked at international level, having struggled to break into a Scotland squad relatively flush with central midfielders. But Scottish football is not what it once was. If McInnes were a player in 2018, does he think he would have earned more than just two caps?
“I do, aye. I think I was a long time really getting any recognition, but I understand why. I was at Morton a long time [in the second tier] and you look at the players ahead of me then: Gary McAllister, Paul McStay, Stuart McCall.
“We always seem to produce good central-midfield players in Scotland, even now. I don’t have any gripes about it, I was in about eight or nine squads but only managed to get on the pitch twice. I was grateful for that, there were a lot of better players than me that never got picked.” McInnes “always wanted to be a manager” and took his first steps towards doing so while a youth player at Morton, earning his Uefa B licence aged just 22.
“At the end of the season, most young players would be away on holiday. I loved being immersed in all this coaching, seeing international players absolutely shaking with nerves trying to put on sessions.”
Gary Megson signed and appointed