NEW DON FOR MCINNES AT RUGBY PARK
DEREK McINNES insists history will show he brought success, profit and respectability back to Aberdeen.
Now he wants to do it all over again with Kilmarnock.
The new Rugby Park boss – who confirmed he’d be joined by trusted sidekick Tony Docherty and former Dons first team coach Paul Sheerin – spoke to the media for the first time yesterday after taking over from Tommy Wright.
McInnes has set his sights on an immediate return to the Premiership and then a top-six spot in the top flight.
He never finished lower than fourth in eight years with the Dons and won the League Cup in 2014.
McInnes said: “I think in time people will look back favourably on my record and what we did at Aberdeen, not just me but the whole club.
“We managed to get the club going again, to get it respected again, to get competitive again. We’ve improved clubs as we’ve gone along as a staff.
“When you look back on your time, and whether it’s success and all the rest, you’d clearly have wanted to win more trophies because that’s how success is normally gauged.
“But there was also success in terms of turning a club that was haemorrhaged by debt into a profitable club, into a training ground that we never had, generating millions in prize money every year, developing and nurturing so many good players.
“Ultimately that was a
BY FRASER WILSON club working fully. It was a proper effort from everybody. There is pressure on this job, as there was at Aberdeen.
“Part of the attraction here is to try to meet that demand and hopefully we can be as successful as we felt we were at Aberdeen.”
The last time McInnes was in the second tier was in his first managerial job at St Johnstone.
He guided the Perth club into the top flight in his second season and says their recent exploits are the benchmark for Killie.
“St Johnstone have shown real consistency and been a top-six team for years,” he said.
“They won a couple of cups recently as well so that shows what can be done for a lot of clubs that maybe don’t have the huge resources others have.
“Clubs can go through lulls of not being in the top flight but there are still things that can be achieved. Stevie Clarke certainly did that in his time here.
“We just want to try to be the best animal and the biggest animal we can be.
“That means trying to get as many supporters in that want to come along, trying to be competitive through the cups and this season trying to win a title.
“You have seen with teams that have gone down, a lot of teams have flirted with relegation for a few years, that it’s only when they go down they come back stronger.
“Hopefully that can be the scenario for us. But we still have to get there.”