McInnes tells of delight Dons hero Hayes will stay
ABERDEEN manager Derek McInnes admits he feared Jonny Hayes was on his way out of Pittodrie in January.
So the winger’s decision to extend his contract came as a major lift to the Dons boss.
Aberdeen rejected three bids from Cardiff during the transfer window, the last totalling £600,000, and the Irishman this week extended his deal by a year to 2019.
McInnes said: “I’m so pleased. It’s a huge boost for everybody – teammates, supporters, myself – because there was a stage in January, certainly the Dundee game, the last game before the window closed, there was a feeling that it may well have been his last game. There was a real possibility of that.
“And the fact we have managed to get him, not just until the end of the season, but to commit beyond that, is great news.”
McInnes hailed Hayes throughout January for the way he brushed off the speculation, and he was delighted to see the club come up with a suitable offer.
“We try to work with all our players and pitch at the right level to keep them,” McInnes said. “We have always been quite good at that.
“The better the team does and the better individuals do within the team, it becomes more of a challenge to be able to keep everybody happy.
“But I spoke to Jonny continuously about where we were, if something didn’t happen for him maybe to extend. So it was something he was willing to do.”
Aberdeen travel to Ross County on William Hill Scottish Cup duty on Saturday aiming to keep alive their hopes of reaching a second Hampden final this season.
McInnes said: “A strong cup run can help your league form as well. It helps the feelgood factor about the club because supporters love nothing more than a cup run.
“I thought we suffered from that last season.
“As good as we were in the league, there was a feeling towards the end of the season that it wasn’t quite the season we wanted it to be, and a big part of that was not progressing as far as we wanted in the cups.”