The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
McInnes urged to resist Rangers lure and build on his Pittodrie legacy
Aberdeen legend Cooper insists Dons boss should ignore calls for him to succeed Warburton
Aberdeen hero Neale Cooper has urged Dons manager Derek McInnes to resist the lure of Rangers.
McInnes has been linked with the vacant manager’s position at the Ibrox club following the sudden departure of Mark Warburton on Friday.
Former Gers manager Alex McLeish and former players Billy Davies and Frank de Boer have also been touted for the job but Cooper, who returned to Scottish football to join the Light Blues in a £250,000 transfer in 1988 following a spell in England with Aston Villa, believes McInnes would be better staying the course at Pittodrie.
He said: “Derek has built a strong squad and is a very popular figure at Pittodrie.
“Nobody knows what is going to happen at Rangers and Derek knows he is as secure as any manager could hope to be at Aberdeen.
“He has plenty of time to go with the Dons before moving elsewhere.”
Cooper is not surprised to see McInnes’s name being in the frame for the job at Ibrox given his successful tenure at Pittodrie but believes the positives far outweigh the negatives when it comes to deciding where his future lies should an approach from the Light Blues come.
He said: “It is understandable Derek is being linked with the job as he is a very good manager, but he has made Aberdeen a hard job to walk away from.
“There is a feelgood feeling about Aberdeen at the moment and that is all down to Derek and Tony Docherty.
“It is clear Derek gets on well with chairman Stewart Milne and he enjoys a great camaraderie with the players in his dressing room.”
The prospect of losing their manager to their rivals in the race for second place in the Scottish Premiership would be a bitter pill for the Dons supporters to swallow, but Cooper hopes the challenge of splitting the Old Firm and trying to win silverware this season is enough to keep the Aberdeen manager at the club.
Cooper said: “Celtic have been outstanding this season and have run away from Aberdeen, but they’ve run away from everyone. It has been a freak campaign for them where they have racked up win after win every week.
“But Aberdeen have second place to play for and they have the chance to reach their second cup final of the season maybe even win it by getting to the Scottish Cup in May.”
After Friday night’s events at Ibrox, Graeme Murty was placed in charge of the Rangers team for Sunday’s William Hill Scottish Cup fifth-round tie against Morton, while former Aberdeen defender Alex McLeish, who spent five seasons as Gers boss from 2001, has emerged as an early front-runner to replace Warburton, possibly for an interim period.
Warburton stated in a press conference on Friday that he had no working relationship with chairman Dave King, while the South Africa-based businessman admitted to being severely irked by Warburton’s reaction to a midseason briefing last month when the board quizzed their manager on the recruitment.
He revealed Warburton had appealed to the board to be allowed to make additional signings last summer instead of the initial plan to make “five or six” as part of “prudent phased investment”.
King, who claimed he and his fellow directors had invested £18 million of the £30m he promised, said the additional investment was expected to ensure Rangers finished a “strong second” but they sit third, 27 points behind Ladbrokes Premiership leaders Celtic.
Of Warburton’s nine summer signings, only Clint Hill and striker Joe Garner have been regular starters and the latter has only scored three goals.