GRAEME SHINNIE insists Pedro Caixinha's comments about Aberdeen's cycle coming to an end are being ignored by the Dons camp.

The Rangers manager expressed the belief towards the end of last season that the Pittodrie club's era as the main challengers to Celtic was on the slide and that his own team would soon pick up the gauntlet.

However, speaking yesterday at Hampden ahead of this weekend's Premiership kick off, Aberdeen captain Shinnie claimed he and his team-mates had nothing to prove to the outspoken Portuguese.

Read more: Lee Wallace: It doesn't matter who the Rangers skipper is - we'll have FIVE captains on the park this season

He said: “There was a lot of people last year saying, Rangers are back and that they would finish second or first.

“But we don’t need that to motivate us. We know what’s in the squad and we will look to do the business.

“We don’t need to prove anything. We want to do well for ourselves and the supporters.

“We know the possibilities for this squad. We want to do the hard work and focus on ourselves, to try to achieve our goals.

“It doesn’t give us any more motivation than we already had.

“He’s probably just said that to upset the momentum we have and the morale in the team.

“But it won’t give us anything extra. We want to be up challenging Celtic and get as close as we can.

Read more: Lee Wallace: It doesn't matter who the Rangers skipper is - we'll have FIVE captains on the park this season

“They blew us away last year with the form they showed but we will try to get as close as we can."

As much as running Celtic closer in the Premiership is the main objective for Aberdeen, their immediate priority is securing a place in the Europa League play-off round by overcoming Apollon Limassol on Thursday.

The Dons hold a 2-1 lead from last Thursday's first leg ahead of Thursday's return, and the man who scored the winner last week said: “We haven’t really focused on the league yet to be honest as we have been looking at Europe so much.

“That has been the case every year since I’ve been at the club. We are looking at Thursday and then we will think about Sunday.

“The Europa League represents a massive chance for us to do well. It’s a competition we want to be in."