It’s not the answer I wanted but I’d still love Kenny to stay for rest of season

Dons battle to keep Gers target beyond January

DEREK McINNES has lost the fight to keep Kenny McLean at Aberdeen but is ready to do battle to retain his star midfielder beyond the January transfer window.

It was not the news the Dons manager wanted to issue on the eve of Celtic’s visit to a sold-out Pittodrie tonight.

Rangers, who had a pre-season £300,000 bid for the former St Mirren man rejected, play the waiting game.

But McInnes pledged to do everything possible to prevent the 25-year-old from leaving before his contract expires in the summer.

The Dons boss said: “It’s not the answer I was hoping for. I respect his decision and I’m grateful he has made the decision early as it helps me plan for life without him.

“When I signed him the pitch was to come here to be part of a successful Aberdeen and help us win trophies.

“Now he’s had one Scotland cap but the intention is to hopefully go on and establish himself at international level and go out of here after a successful season.

“That’s football. As his contract’s up he’s quite within his rights to go and look at something different but I still look forward to working with him the remainder of the season.”

Signed by McInnes from the Paisley club in a £200,000 deal in January 2015, McLean was released by Rangers as a youth but rose to prominence with the Buddies.

He’s been on Pedro Caixinha’s radar but the Aberdeen board have resisted offers from the Ibrox boss. And McInnes wouldn’t be drawn on whether McLean’s future lay with Rangers or south of the border.

He said: “Kenny’s performances between now and then will determine where he’ll be going but there is a difference between being a free transfer and a brilliant Bosman. If he plays to his potential on a regular basis – and his performances have been brilliant lately – then that will decide the level of club and level of interest in him.

“I’ve got it in my head I’ll be working with him the rest of the season but we can only control that until then. If we get an offer in January then it may well be something we would consider like everything else.

“I’m not thinking about replacing him in January. We considered offers before but it wasn’t in our interests to do anything. That may well be different in January but I’d rather he lifted the Scottish Cup with us and played to his full potential for us the rest of the season.”

McInnes’s immediate focus lies with trying to halt Celtic’s 60-game unbeaten run in domestic football.

He said: “We have been the team that’s tried to give some sort of semblance of pushing Celtic.

“They’ve always been hard to beat, especially when they meet the standards they met last season. If they get anywhere close to that level of consistency and points then they’ll win the league again. It is up to us to make them work for it.”

McInnes is anxious for Gary Mackay-Steven, brought in from Celtic as part of the Jonny Hayes transfer to Parkhead, to show his class tonight. The winger hit the only goal in their win against Hibs 10 days ago.

And the Dons boss added: “I spoke to Gary about trying to replicate his Hibs performance – carrying a threat, being a ball carrier for us and being a goal threat and getting us up the pitch.

“Any time a player plays against his former club there might be something more on it – but once it starts it’s all about the game.”