Shinnie in no hurry to sign a new deal with Dons
ABERDEEN captain Graeme Shinnie last night warned he is in no rush to pledge his future to Pittodrie. The 27-year-old’s current contract expires at the end of the season and he is officially free to speak to other clubs from January 1.
Shinnie was appointed Dons captain before the 2017 Scottish Cup final when it emerged that Ryan Jack — skipper until then — had signed a pre-contract agreement to join Rangers.
The fear now is that Shinnie will follow suit in clinching a pre-contract elsewhere, but last night he reassured Aberdeen supporters that he has not ruled out remaining at his hometown club.
‘There are no developments and it is what it is,’ he said. ‘There will be rumours flying about but I’m at an age where this is a very important decision for me.
‘I won’t rush into it. I’m going to take my time to speak to my family and see what is best for me, but I do love it at this club.
‘I’m the captain and I have a great relationship with the staff, the fans and the players at Aberdeen. That is something I would never give up easily, so it is a decision I need to make — but not rush into.’
Shinnie also vowed that the uncertainty over his future won’t distract him from the task of leading Aberdeen to a fifth consecutive runners-up spot in the Premiership.
Tuesday night’s thrilling 3-2 victory over Livingston saw McInnes’ side get back to winning ways. After a stop-start season, Shinnie is convinced Aberdeen are contenders to again become the best of the rest in the top flight.
He said: ‘I think we are good enough to finish second again — but it’s up to us to go out and prove it.
‘If you are going to be anywhere near it, you must put runs together and put pressure on your rivals. We haven’t done that so far.
‘We’ve been playing catch-up for most of the season. It has been frustrating and we want to change that now.
‘It has not been nice looking at the league table after a couple of victories and the finding that you are still down in sixth or seventh place.
‘We want to be back up there again and the only way you do that is by winning games. That’s why we can’t be winning one, then dropping points.
‘There’s so much to play for, but we need to find the sort of form we’ve shown in recent seasons.
‘If we can win our game in hand this month, then we would be level on points with Hearts and just one point behind Kilmarnock.
‘That would put us right in amongst it again, which wouldn’t be bad after our inconsistent start to the season.’
Aberdeen will be without injured defender Mikey Devlin and winger Gary Mackay-Steven for today’s trip to bottom club St Mirren. But boss Derek McInnes hopes Mackay-Steven will have recovered from a head knock sustained in the Betfred Cup final defeat to Celtic a fortnight ago to face Dundee at Pittodrie on Tuesday night.
And there was good news yesterday as the Dons won their appeal against Sam Cosgrove’s booking for diving against Livingston in midweek.
Yellow cards can only be appealed for diving or mistaken identity and Aberdeen submitted an appeal after television footage showed there had been contact.
Yesterday, the Scottish FA confirmed the English striker’s yellow card had been overturned.
“I love this club but I’ll see what is best for me”