Derek McInnes has ruled himself out of the running to be the next Scotland manager and insisted fellow front-runner Steve Clarke is the man for the job.
The Aberdeen boss halted speculation surrounding the issue by making it clear he has no intention of leaving Pittodrie, paving the way for his Kilmarnock counterpart to be named as Alex McLeish’s successor next week.
McInnes and Clarke had been neck-and-neck as the bookies’ favourites for the job following McLeish’s sacking in the wake of the disastrous Euro 2020 qualifying result in Kazakhstan but the unequivocal statement by the Pittodrie coach has sent a message to the Scottish FA that he won’t be shifted from his current post.
“I see myself as a club manager and I want to continue being a club manager," he said. “I think you need to be a certain type to give up club management and go and take it on and, of course, if anyone ever asked me in future if I wanted to be Scotland manager, I would always consider it and it is something I do see for myself in future.
“But for now, I see myself as a club manager and I can see myself as an Aberdeen manager and I’m just not in a position at this stage of my career where I see myself giving up that day to day involvement.”
McInnes was also full of praise for the job Clarke had done at Rugby Park and insisted he would be a good choice for the SFA, if they did, indeed, opt for the former Reading and West Brom boss.
He said: "Anybody can have a good run over two or three months where you can get a bit of momentum going and confidence in the team, but over the course of the last 18 months, having to deal with transfer windows, injuries to players and managing the team, you can see that there's been good work done at Kilmarnock.
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"That's a sustained period that puts more than a bit of evidence that it is a good manager working and that's how I feel about it.”
McInnes, preparing his side for the season’s finale against Hibs at Easter Road tomorrow and determined to pip Kilmarnock to a third-place finish in the Premiership, is hungry for greater success at Pittodrie, although he accepts the bigger resources of Celtic and Rangers make the task extremely difficult.
Despite that, he’s convinced there is more he can with the Dons.
“I would like to continue to get more from club management if I could,” he added. “All my focus now generally is continuing what we
are trying to do, which is build a squad for next season.
“I can certainly win more trophies. It gets tough to compete for the league when you see the financial resources of Rangers and Celtic.
“Scottish football, other than certain periods in history and time, is normally Celtic, Rangers and Rangers, Celtic.
“It’s normally the club spending the most money that wins the league. That’s not always the case, but normally.”
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