Mciness Interview In The Times With G. Spiers

February 11, 2016

Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, tells Graham Spiers how he has made the club feel good about itself again

Derek McInnes arrives for work most mornings at 7 o’clock at Pittodrie — he just about opens up the place himself. He checks the heating, makes sure the players’ dressing room is warm, chats with incoming **** staff and others. More than anything, though, McInnes cherishes that hour between 7 and 8am for his own thinking time, his prized solitude.
“I like having that to myself,” he says. “It is full-on for me at Aberdeen: cajoling, encouraging, pushing everyone at the club to be the best we can be. So that hour, before everyone pours in, is my thinking time. I know, once the day proper starts, I won’t get any more time to myself.”

It is impossible to miss the striving for perfection in McInnes. He has had one bruising experience in management — when he tried and failed to turn around a chronically malfunctioning Bristol City — and it taught him never to be exposed to that scenario again. Aberdeen now has a football manager driven to bring out the best in himself and those around him.

“Public perception is important for a manager,” he says. “You’ve got to remain credible. When you lose your job, as I did at Bristol City, you’ve got to go and prove yourself again. But I never lost confidence in my ability.
“I’ve always backed myself to be able to work with a team and make players better. Three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, when things get really competitive, is still my favourite part of the job. I love my interaction with my players. The other stuff — dealing with directors, agents, the media — all of that is secondary for me. That’s not where I want to spend my time. The bit I feel I always did best — working with players — that’s what I love.”

McInnes’s sheer thoroughness at Aberdeen helps to explain why the club has been on an upward trajectory virtually since the day he arrived. It will be three years next month since he was appointed as Craig Brown’s successor.
“My job is all-consuming. We measure the Aberdeen players on every level — physical, emotional, psychological, their general happiness. I’ve ended up in situations where I’ve had some very personal conversations with one or two players, on issues which I discovered were affecting them deeply. My job is all about looking after my players.

“I’m just trying to give Aberdeen good value. I try to dedicate myself to the job and to the people who employ me. It has been important to me to have a good relationship with my chairman because I’ve learned in my career, at St Johnstone and especially at Bristol City, that nothing can be done without the support of those above you. I need to have the same chairman relationship I had at St Johnstone with Geoff Brown — that’s what I’ve got at Aberdeen.”
McInnes’s fate and outlook were shaped by a tortuous 16 months spent as Bristol City manager between October 2011 and January 2013. At first lauded at the club, and rescuing City from relegation in May 2012, his time there descended into pain and chaos as a malfunctioning and financially-suicidal club could not fix itself.

What happened in Bristol influences McInnes’ thinking to this day. It reminds him of everything modern football and management should not be about. “I needed simplicity after Bristol City, which was an absolute ... I can’t say it,” he says. “After Bristol I just needed to strip everything right back, and do the job the way any football manager is supposed to do his job.

“Bristol City had fought relegation for three or four seasons prior to me. I kept the club up in 2012 and, looking back now, that was when I was in my strongest position there. At the end of that season I should have been kicking and screaming to finally get things done properly at that club.

“We had players haemorrhaging money at Ashton Gate, earning 14k or 15k a week which the club couldn’t afford. But I wasn’t convinced the club wanted to deal with the situation. I had four different managers’ signings in the dressing room. It was incredible.

“I remember one of my first days at training; all these players parked their cars and came over the hill towards me in their red training gear. There was maybe 40 or 50 of them — it was like watching Zulus coming towards me. I had to try to ship loads of them out on loan and get the squad down to an acceptable level.

“We managed to keep the club up in 2012, having been way adrift when I arrived there. The board had said, ‘if we go down with Derek McInnes, we’ll come back with Derek McInnes’. I had regiments of players I had to move on, but these guys had nowhere to go. Bristol City was Utopia to them — they were on great money. The club was vastly over-paying its players by thousands of pounds per week.

“Everything at Bristol was a mess, including some of the posturing for power in the boardroom. That’s why I said, at Aberdeen, I just needed simplicity. I needed to get back to doing what a football manager does.
“Bristol City taught me one key lesson — when things are going your way, and you are hot, then insist there and then on getting things done. Because it can all change so quickly. You go from a king to a clown.”

When McInnes arrived as Aberdeen manager in March 2013 he set about the task with relish. In one of his first games as manager-in-waiting he watched Craig Brown’s team go down to a Dundee United side inspired by a relentless, hungry, irrepressible Willo Flood. The next day McInnes got straight on to Flood’s agent to find out how to get the player to Pittodrie that summer.

McInnes came with one ambition: to fill Aberdeen FC again with determination and self-respect. “I want this to be a good workplace to come into,” he says. “One of the first things I gleaned about Aberdeen was, when the players weren’t winning games, they felt s*** about themselves. Well, the one place where they should not feel s*** about themselves is at their work.

“I had to fix that. There are a lot of people inside Aberdeen FC, a lot of employees. And at one point there was this underlying feeling here, ‘och, the players have let us down’. The players weren’t feeling very good about themselves coming in to work. It was the opposite of what I wanted. I wanted Aberdeen players to feel good about coming to their work. I wanted them to bounce out the door, feeling like they had had a good day. So there were loads of these little things I had to fix.

“Our job is to be the best that we can be at Aberdeen. As a team, we are not brilliant, and we are certainly not s***. I know what happens to the players when they put two or three wins together and they are out in the town. They get, ‘aw, you guys are brilliant’. Well, the players aren’t brilliant, just as they are not s***when they lose a few games. It is all about balance.”

Can Aberdeen win the 2015-16 Ladbrokes Premiership title? Currently level with Celtic, who have a game in hand, it is the question McInnes now faces from the media on a weekly basis. In private, I am convinced McInnes believes his team can do it. In public, he is deliberately circumspect.

“Put it this way: I am conscious that my players are doing exceptionally well,” he says. “Last season we were 21 points clear of third spot, we set an SPL record for a non-Old Firm team, we broke records left, right and centre over previous Aberdeen teams ... and yet there was still this feeling, ‘aye, but they’ve fallen short’. I’m not in this for credit myself. But what I am here to do is make sure my players don’t feel they have let anyone down.

“I talk privately to my players about these things. Whatever I say openly in the press won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the result on a Saturday — but what I say to my players does. So it is what I say to my players that counts, ultimately. I don’t feel the need to give anyone else any motivation, of any sort. The only words that count for me are my words to my players.”

McInnes is 44 years old. He is in the prime of his working life and has committed his future to Aberdeen. With some justification, the Red Army loves him. But at some point, down the line, would he like to go back to England?
“Yes, I would,” he replies. “Listen, I love my job, I am really happy where I am, and I’m committed long-term to Aberdeen. We think there is still a lot more to come for this club, and I think that I can satisfy a lot of my own aspirations at Aberdeen.

King Street Loon · February 11, 2016

Derek McInnes, the Aberdeen manager, tells Graham Spiers how he has made the club feel good about itself again
Derek McInnes arrives for work most mornings at 7 o’clock at Pittodrie — he just about opens up the place himself. He checks the heating, makes sure the players’ dressing room is warm, chats with incoming **** staff and others. More than anything, though, McInnes cherishes that hour between 7 and 8am for his own thinking time, his prized solitude.
“I like having that to myself,” he says. “It is full-on for me at Aberdeen: cajoling, encouraging, pushing everyone at the club to be the best we can be. So that hour, before everyone pours in, is my thinking time. I know, once the day proper starts, I won’t get any more time to myself.”
It is impossible to miss the striving for perfection in McInnes. He has had one bruising experience in management — when he tried and failed to turn around a chronically malfunctioning Bristol City — and it taught him never to be exposed to that scenario again. Aberdeen now has a football manager driven to bring out the best in himself and those around him.
“Public perception is important for a manager,” he says. “You’ve got to remain credible. When you lose your job, as I did at Bristol City, you’ve got to go and prove yourself again. But I never lost confidence in my ability.
“I’ve always backed myself to be able to work with a team and make players better. Three o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, when things get really competitive, is still my favourite part of the job. I love my interaction with my players. The other stuff — dealing with directors, agents, the media — all of that is secondary for me. That’s not where I want to spend my time. The bit I feel I always did best — working with players — that’s what I love.”
McInnes’s sheer thoroughness at Aberdeen helps to explain why the club has been on an upward trajectory virtually since the day he arrived. It will be three years next month since he was appointed as Craig Brown’s successor.
“My job is all-consuming. We measure the Aberdeen players on every level — physical, emotional, psychological, their general happiness. I’ve ended up in situations where I’ve had some very personal conversations with one or two players, on issues which I discovered were affecting them deeply. My job is all about looking after my players.
“I’m just trying to give Aberdeen good value. I try to dedicate myself to the job and to the people who employ me. It has been important to me to have a good relationship with my chairman because I’ve learned in my career, at St Johnstone and especially at Bristol City, that nothing can be done without the support of those above you. I need to have the same chairman relationship I had at St Johnstone with Geoff Brown — that’s what I’ve got at Aberdeen.”
McInnes’s fate and outlook were shaped by a tortuous 16 months spent as Bristol City manager between October 2011 and January 2013. At first lauded at the club, and rescuing City from relegation in May 2012, his time there descended into pain and chaos as a malfunctioning and financially-suicidal club could not fix itself.
What happened in Bristol influences McInnes’ thinking to this day. It reminds him of everything modern football and management should not be about. “I needed simplicity after Bristol City, which was an absolute ... I can’t say it,” he says. “After Bristol I just needed to strip everything right back, and do the job the way any football manager is supposed to do his job.
“Bristol City had fought relegation for three or four seasons prior to me. I kept the club up in 2012 and, looking back now, that was when I was in my strongest position there. At the end of that season I should have been kicking and screaming to finally get things done properly at that club.
“We had players haemorrhaging money at Ashton Gate, earning 14k or 15k a week which the club couldn’t afford. But I wasn’t convinced the club wanted to deal with the situation. I had four different managers’ signings in the dressing room. It was incredible.
“I remember one of my first days at training; all these players parked their cars and came over the hill towards me in their red training gear. There was maybe 40 or 50 of them — it was like watching Zulus coming towards me. I had to try to ship loads of them out on loan and get the squad down to an acceptable level.
“We managed to keep the club up in 2012, having been way adrift when I arrived there. The board had said, ‘if we go down with Derek McInnes, we’ll come back with Derek McInnes’. I had regiments of players I had to move on, but these guys had nowhere to go. Bristol City was Utopia to them — they were on great money. The club was vastly over-paying its players by thousands of pounds per week.
“Everything at Bristol was a mess, including some of the posturing for power in the boardroom. That’s why I said, at Aberdeen, I just needed simplicity. I needed to get back to doing what a football manager does.
“Bristol City taught me one key lesson — when things are going your way, and you are hot, then insist there and then on getting things done. Because it can all change so quickly. You go from a king to a clown.”
When McInnes arrived as Aberdeen manager in March 2013 he set about the task with relish. In one of his first games as manager-in-waiting he watched Craig Brown’s team go down to a Dundee United side inspired by a relentless, hungry, irrepressible Willo Flood. The next day McInnes got straight on to Flood’s agent to find out how to get the player to Pittodrie that summer.
McInnes came with one ambition: to fill Aberdeen FC again with determination and self-respect. “I want this to be a good workplace to come into,” he says. “One of the first things I gleaned about Aberdeen was, when the players weren’t winning games, they felt s*** about themselves. Well, the one place where they should not feel s*** about themselves is at their work.
“I had to fix that. There are a lot of people inside Aberdeen FC, a lot of employees. And at one point there was this underlying feeling here, ‘och, the players have let us down’. The players weren’t feeling very good about themselves coming in to work. It was the opposite of what I wanted. I wanted Aberdeen players to feel good about coming to their work. I wanted them to bounce out the door, feeling like they had had a good day. So there were loads of these little things I had to fix.
“Our job is to be the best that we can be at Aberdeen. As a team, we are not brilliant, and we are certainly not s***. I know what happens to the players when they put two or three wins together and they are out in the town. They get, ‘aw, you guys are brilliant’. Well, the players aren’t brilliant, just as they are not s***when they lose a few games. It is all about balance.”
Can Aberdeen win the 2015-16 Ladbrokes Premiership title? Currently level with Celtic, who have a game in hand, it is the question McInnes now faces from the media on a weekly basis. In private, I am convinced McInnes believes his team can do it. In public, he is deliberately circumspect.
“Put it this way: I am conscious that my players are doing exceptionally well,” he says. “Last season we were 21 points clear of third spot, we set an SPL record for a non-Old Firm team, we broke records left, right and centre over previous Aberdeen teams ... and yet there was still this feeling, ‘aye, but they’ve fallen short’. I’m not in this for credit myself. But what I am here to do is make sure my players don’t feel they have let anyone down.
“I talk privately to my players about these things. Whatever I say openly in the press won’t make the slightest bit of difference to the result on a Saturday — but what I say to my players does. So it is what I say to my players that counts, ultimately. I don’t feel the need to give anyone else any motivation, of any sort. The only words that count for me are my words to my players.”
McInnes is 44 years old. He is in the prime of his working life and has committed his future to Aberdeen. With some justification, the Red Army loves him. But at some point, down the line, would he like to go back to England?
“Yes, I would,” he replies. “Listen, I love my job, I am really happy where I am, and I’m committed long-term to Aberdeen. We think there is still a lot more to come for this club, and I think that I can satisfy a lot of my own aspirations at Aberdeen.

@@ericblack4boss

BWG · February 11, 2016

It's almost as if he's a good manager

February 11, 2016

I personally like how he wants to return to England, this shows real ambition and he knows to get a good job down there that probably means winning the league up here.

McPhee123 · February 11, 2016

I personally like how he wants to return to England, this shows real ambition and he knows to get a good job down there that probably means winning the league up here.

Was just about to say the same thing. I wouldn't want a manager who wants to see his career out at Aberdeen - if we are his vehicle to success then I'm more than happy to be on board, however sad it will be the day he hops off the dandy bus

BWG · February 11, 2016

Was just about to say the same thing. I wouldn't want a manager who wants to see his career out at Aberdeen - if we are his vehicle to success then I'm more than happy to be on board, however sad it will be the day he hops off the dandy bus

It's ok we'll get Tommy Wright and out tactic a cunt

woohoo · February 11, 2016

Derek McInnes speaks a lot of sense.

a don in oz · February 11, 2016

Good read that. Think if he manages to pull off the implausible and drag us to a league win he'll be off within months to some English unfancied but moneyed up club.

TopDon · February 11, 2016

Great article, but I'm waiting for the auto biography after we win the league.

Clydeside_Sheep · February 11, 2016

A good read, thanks for posting that.

Impressed McInnes is at work for 7am too! (usually I sneer at folk who are in very early!)

Of course he thinks we have a chance of doing it, but he wont say that to the media and they will use it to heap pressure on the playersand then attack him over it if sellick win.

If the huns were just 3 pts off sellick right now, the media would be in overdrive portraying this as "the most exciting league race ever" - but because only one of the ugly sisters are involved, they say little, due to how dismissive they are of other teams.

This is annoying in one sense, but its working to our advantage in terms of keeping pressure off the players.

When does Dereks current deal expire again?

I agree that, if he does win the league, teams will be clamouring for him - but imo it would be more ambitious of him to stay here and see if he can build on and repeat the feat and build a real footballin legacy.

He must be financially secure already, so what does he love more - football or money?

We must try to keep him for as long as possible in any case.

February 11, 2016

When does Dereks current deal expire again?

Not until summer 2019.

BWG · February 11, 2016

Dereks deal expires when he decides it expires. If a good team came in for him (after we've won the league of course) then I'd expect he'd take it and I'd wish him every success.

The Boofon · February 11, 2016

Pretty pissed off he's only getting us to perform so he can get a move to England.

ericblack4boss · February 11, 2016

McInnes is a cunt, eh EB4B?

Heid screwed on, McInnes.

Aye far did I say that chief? Bad enough getting a doing from you cunts for stuff I do say without you blaming me for stuff I didn't, ok?

ericblack4boss · February 11, 2016

I will give mcinnes the benefit of the doubt and believe he is privately telling the players we can be champions,

Ok just for the avoidance of doubt, you shithouses!

zander · February 11, 2016

Aye far did I say that chief? Bad enough getting a doing from you cunts for stuff I do say without you blaming me for stuff I didn't, ok?

It's all the toonsers fault Eb4bmin

ericblack4boss · February 11, 2016

Aye it usually is,

Fucking toonsers!

Henry · February 11, 2016

Aye it usually is,
Fucking trousers!

You prefer a kilt when you're fencing EB4B min?

muttonhumper · February 11, 2016

Good read that. Think if he manages to pull off the implausible and drag us to a league win he'll be off within months to some English unfancied but moneyed up club.

I'd like to think that if he did win the league for us, that he'd want to stay on to have a wee stab at the Champion's League.

Daz the Don · February 11, 2016

I'd like to think that if he did win the league for us, that he'd want to stay on to have a wee stab at the Champion's League.

Absolutely, a decent fist at any qualifiers and his stock would be sky high. He's an intelligent man so will know this. The interview is a good read and just reaffirms that Mcinnes handles himself extremely well with the media.

Crashnyploshnit · February 11, 2016

Great article. Makes me like him even more as he clearly has the intelligence to string a sentence together unlike some previous managers and has the drive and determination to push the whole club forward. He arrives after me at work though which is disappointing.

StandFree1982 · February 11, 2016

Aberdeen in a CL group v Real Madrid, Juventus and someone shit would be something to behold.

Certainly more interesting than playing some random team from Asian that nobody has heard of.

reekie_dock · February 11, 2016

Nae bad speel for a HUN...

Boras83 · February 11, 2016

For the club we love he's done, and is still doing, a helluva good job. He deserves these good times, and what a good time it is: thirteen games to go; we're right on celtic's shoulder; the players and management team have the confidence and belief from their track record together over the last three years; a settled side with players who've gotten to know each other's strengths and weaknesses (unlike the league leaders who need to shoe-horn in their recent panic buys and still don't know quite what to do with the players they took off yinited a year ago); and we've good two good midfielders to come back from injury. A good time to be part of the management team or a player of Aberdeen FC, and whatever happens over the next three months it's a time to relish and enjoy the ride. And looking to each of these thirteen games, if the players stay relaxed and keep enjoying what they're doing, we just might...

Dusk( 2 Stars )Don · February 12, 2016

Nae bad speel for a HUN...

Here Here (loves the dons) bring him home? out of a job i believe

Chewie37 · February 12, 2016

Derek McInnes speaks a lot of sense.

You do too Woohoo........

Just read Richard Gordon's book and there's a bit in it where DM says in his last game for the dead team, he had to have a piss in the away dugout at Pittodrie before coming on as a sub. I am shocked, he's usually so nice

reekie_dock · February 12, 2016

You do too Woohoo........

Just read Richard Gordon's book and there's a bit in it where DM says in his last game for the dead team, he had to have a piss in the away dugout at Pittodrie before coming on as a sub. I am shocked, he's usually so nice

Just marking his territory...

Byrne Baby Byrne · February 12, 2016

Speaking of interviews I am a bit confused about Peter Pawletts interview in the EE about us being top of the league... When did that happen?!

BWG · February 12, 2016

Speaking of interviews I am a bit confused about Peter Pawletts interview in the EE about us being top of the league... When did that happen?!

Around the same time we became the greatest team that the world has ever seen - by far I may add.

Chewie37 · February 12, 2016

Around the same time we became the greatest team that the world has ever seen - by far I may add.

Wow Pawletts deceptively old......1903? (Could be another Kombouare joke in this)

Mciness Interview In The Times With G. Spiers

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