ABERDEEN chairman Stewart Milne admits he hopes the opening of the club’s new £12 million training complex will help ease Derek McInnes’ impatience.
Milne was given a tour of the Kingsford site on Wednesday and is confident the facilities will be ready by late summer.
The training ground and sports hub is phase one of ambitious plans that include building a 20,000-seater stadium at a cost of £40m.
McInnes is said to be keen on the vacant Scotland post but Milne hopes the vast improvements to the club’s infrastructure will please the Dons manager.
“It’s taken a long time, the last 20 years, and it has been a long and pretty torturous journey but it’s fantastic to see it shaping up.
“Hopefully by late summer the facilities are ready for Derek and the guys to start using and it’s really going to be a major milestone for the club to finally get here.
“I know Derek has been very impatient over the last few years and we all understand that. There have been promises of training facilities here for many years and we’ve had a few false dawns. To come on site and see the progress being made is absolutely fantastic.
“When the players come out here late summer and see this is their place of work I think it will be a massive lift for them and I don’t think there will be many people happier than Derek and Tony [Docherty, assistant manager] when they get the keys for the place and are able to start using it.”
Milne, meanwhile, has reiterated the challenge of securing finance to build the new main stand will not have an impact on the playing budget.
“When we set out five, six years ago, our aim was to eventually become a top 100 European club and this is a fundamental building block in helping us get there.
“I think everyone appreciates that the driving force for everything that AFC achieves is what happens out on the pitch and it’s fantastic we’ve had five consecutive years in Europe and hopefully this is year number six.
“We’ve invested in the team and most areas throughout the club. This is another massive investment and success on the field is fundamental and we need to make sure we build on the football budget because that, at the end of the day, is what delivers real success that the fans want to see.”
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