Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes will give full consideration to any offers he may receive in the future despite turning down the chance to take over at Rangers last week.

McInnes was expected to move to Ibrox after the club he spent five years at as a player in the 1990s made an official approach to their Pittodrie counterparts on Tuesday. However, the 46-year-old, who passed up the opportunity to move to English Championship club Sunderland in the summer, surprised many by opting to stay at Aberdeen.

The former St Johnstone manager endured a difficult spell in charge of Bristol City, who were blighted by serious money problems, and is wary of accepting a position where his chances of success may be compromised by off-field issues.

The man who has led Aberdeen to three consecutive second-place finishes in the top flight has, though, refused to rule out the possibility of moving on in the future.

“A couple of clubs have tried to get me in the last few months, maybe recognising good work by everybody here,” he said. “When opportunities come it’s normally because you’re doing well, and I feel that I can continue to do well. I’ll back myself.

“Hopefully we can have some good times at Aberdeen and if there are opportunities in the future, wherever, I would look at that again. But for now I think it’s important the message is clear that we try to knuckle down and get on with the job at Aberdeen.

“I grew up a Rangers supporter, I played for the club, I think it’s clear the affinity that I have with the club, as a child and as a player. But it’s my career. My career is very important to me, I’m confident in myself.”

McInnes was criticised by a section of the Aberdeen support after he took two days off to consider the approach from Rangers along with his assistant Tony Docherty and has admitted to being relieved the saga was over. He expressed hope that his side, who had taken just seven out of a possible 21 points before their 1-0 win over Dundee at Dens Park on Friday night, could start producing their best form now the uncertainty surrounding him had ended.

“It was very unusual to say the least,” he said. “People maybe assumed a lot more about me and a lot more about the situation than was factually true. But there was enough there to keep this bubbling over.

“I think what was normal practice was, once the official approach goes in, it was less than 48 hours before there was an answer. It was everything that went on beforehand that was a bit more unusual, and not necessarily welcome.

“There was a lot to consider. My family still live in the west and I’ve got boys in school and all the rest of it. It’s like anything, in any walk of life, when opportunities come along you’ve got to weigh everything up.

“I’m actually quite good at keeping myself unaware of that [speculation]. It’s normally the media who bring things to my attention. But I was always aware that supporters were concerned. They’ve been used to seeing their team win, then there were a couple of poor performances.“You can’t change what some people think. It’s not my doing. I know what was right, I had nothing to feel guilty about. I worked hard. I’ve always worked hard. I’ve always given my club everything, whether as a player or a manager. My job is to get a winning team on the pitch, so I can understand concerns.

“Expectations have been high, so when the team isn’t winning, there always has to be a reason for that. With everything going on, wrapped up together, it was an easy thing to assume that it was affecting us.

“Now, whether it did or whether it didn’t, the results didn’t come, but we were still preparing the same, we were still doing the job. Like I say, people think they know you, people can make assumptions. That is the life of a modern manager, opinions can quickly gather momentum.

“But I know myself what was right and what was wrong, what was happening and what wasn’t, and by and large, our focus remained on the training. We were just hoping it would manifest, as it normally does, through our performances.

“Although the performances weren’t there, nothing changed from us. My staff, we were all on the job. Sometimes, even though you work as hard as you do Monday through Friday, the results don’t come, but by and large they do, you get the reward for your hard work.

“So I was pleased we managed to get back to something a bit more like normality on Friday night. It was normal practice for us.”