Derek Rae: Derek McInnes' Rangers move may not be all lovely jubbly

I speak as an Aberdonian and I always I thought there would be a limit of Derek’s time at Pittodrie. By his own admission he took the job with Aberdeen when the only way was up and he recognised there was a way for them to become the second force in Scottish football.

He’s certainly succeeded in that.

Derek is someone who is not just a manager, but has a keen eye on how you rebuild a football club, and that’s exactly what he’s done at Aberdeen. He addressed the weaknesses at the club on and off the park.

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Now he’s been linked with his old club in Rangers following Pedro Caixinha’s sacking last week, and many think he would jump at the chance. But he will always be thinking about ‘What is next for me?’.

I did wonder last summer when he lost Niall McGinn and Jonny Hayes that maybe he had done all he could have, but he’s continued to build.

The problem with Rangers is they are an absolute mess.

Jurgen Klopp once said in a highly-respected German film called Trainer ‘If you go into a club and the board is bad and dysfunctional, as a manager you have no chance.’

I don’t think Derek will be stupid about this. He won’t simply think ‘I want to go to Rangers because I can make them better.’

Undoubtedly he could.

It’s quite clear the decisions that have been made when it comes to the manager at Rangers have not been all that profitable. You could say that if they go after Derek McInnes they are addressing that.

I just think before we rush in and saying ‘this is the job he wants and that he will get’ you have to think about compensation, and Derek may think having turned down Sunderland in the summer that there is a better job down south that will come up for him.

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He does have unfinished business in England, and rightly so. It didn’t go too well at Bristol City for him latterly for a variety of reasons, many of which had nothing to do with him.

He turned down Sunderland because he thought they weren’t the right club for him, and perhaps they were a mess as well.

It’s logical for Rangers to look at him. He’s clearly the best manager who knows Scottish football that’s available. Caixinha was a bad appointment at a number of levels and it failed to address issues at the club from top to bottom.

That’s what Aberdeen did when they appointed Derek, and they - and possibly he - will feel there is still somewhere for him to go at Pittodrie.

He could win the Scottish Cup this season or maybe another League Cup. They are still a point behind but it’s unlikely they could Celtic. However, you could potentially say the same of Rangers.

Derek has a lot of thinking to do, and there’s a long way to go in this managerial hunt yet.