THE signing of a two-year contract extension at Pittodrie last month, providing as much job security as a manager can ask for until the summer of 2019, was quite a statement from Derek McInnes.

Perhaps he sensed, as did many, that Mark Warburton’s coronation at Rangers was something of a fait accompli. Perhaps he had his reservations over giving up on the undoubted progress made at Aberdeen over the past two years and walking into a club facing an entire rebuild in the wake of the scorched earth policy of its previous board.

Whatever the reality, McInnes, who was certainly under consideration for the manager’s position at Ibrox, sees good reason to remain in the Granite City for the foreseeable future. Less clear is where the motivation will come from year in, year out in a league that, despite the surprisingly strong challenge mounted to Celtic last term, he cannot realistically be expected to win.

There is always the possibility of picking up another trophy to go with the League Cup triumph of March 2014. Continued progress may also open up some kind of passport to England and an opportunity to atone for a disappointing period at Bristol City earlier in his career.

It is in the heat and dust of Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, this week, though, that the ambitious 44-year-old may find a more immediate path to meaningful professional development.

Aberdeen are two ties away from the group section of the Europa League. FC Kairat, top of their domestic championship with a 36-year-old Anatoliy Tymoshchuk now in the heart of their midfield and a £15 million training academy bought and paid for, present a fascinating challenge in the third qualifying round.

Tough as the fixture is, McInnes will sense a certain expectation from the Red Army following the 3-0 first leg win over HNL Rijeka in Croatia that smoothed the way to this stage. This is new territory for him as a manager and the potential benefits of further progression are almost unlimited.

Jimmy Calderwood was the last manager to take Aberdeen to the league stages of a European competition, making it through the round-robin format and reaching the last 32 of the Uefa Cup in 2007-08, and he believes success in that arena would prove invaluable for McInnes’ education as a coach.

Calderwood took Aberdeen into the group stages thanks to an impressive victory over the Ukrainian club Dnipro, earned through an away goal scored by Darren Mackie. The fact they scraped through their section as a distant third to Atletico Madrid and Panathinaikos should not colour the fact that their meeting with Bayern Munich was secured through a resounding 4-0 home win over very respectable opposition in FC Copenhagen.

Calderwood earned his spurs coaching in Holland, where he finished his playing career. He was raised by the legendary Rinus Michels within the Dutch system and rubbed shoulders with the likes of Johan Cruyff and Guus Hiddink.

Having Ottmar Hitzfeld, a two-time Champions League winner, in the opposition dug-out at Pittodrie will forever remain a highlight, though. Calderwood spent weeks preparing for that pulsating 2-2 draw with Bayern in the first leg, poring over footage and trying to second-guess a bona-fide coaching great, and believes McInnes would reap similar rewards should he manage to establish the Dons as a team capable of overcoming the obvious obstacles created by Scotland’s low co-efficient and putting themselves in the mix regularly with top-level continental opposition.

“In the same way you do as a player, you want to go as high as you possibly can as a manager,” said Calderwood. “It is a different world competing in that environment because you really have to have an edge all the time. Of course, Derek will need a little bit of luck in the draw to make the groups again, but he has a strong squad of players at Aberdeen now.

“You want to pit your wits against the best and I, of course, had the chance to go up against Hitzfeld. He is one of the greatest-ever. I did so much homework on Bayern before we played them and I still insist they were the luckiest team alive to get away from Pittodrie with a draw from that first leg. Sone Aluko absolutely tore Phillip Lahm, one of the best full-backs in the world, apart in that match.

“Hitzfeld came over to shake hands at time up and I can tell you that he knew he got away with it that night. Even if we’d won, we would probably still have been humped in the second leg, but it would maybe have changed Bayern’s mentality a little.

“It is just an honour to talk to people such as Hitzfeld and I have been fortunate enough to do that throughout my career. I was really fortunate when I was coaching in Holland as well because that brought me into contact with the likes of Hiddink, Dick Advocaat, Co Adriaanse and Cruyff.

“That whole time over there really opened my eyes in terms of tactics, training facilities and how the teams trained and I brought that back into Scotland. I always tried to pick the brains of those guys whenever I had the opportunity. Competing in Europe gives you that same chance and you have to make the most of it.”

McInnes has often spoken of his desire to make the people of Aberdeen fall in love with their club again. There is something about bringing European nights to Pittodrie that makes that task all the easier. Calderwood’s side had more than 20,000 behind them when they played host to Bayern. What he remembers most, though, was the phenomenal following they carried in their away matches throughout that campaign and the buzz that Uefa competition brought to the city.

“Aberdeen is a fantastic club when you get it going the way we did,” he recalled. “From memory, we took 9000 fans to Munich and something like 10,000 to Madrid for the Atletico game. Aberdeen fans were popping up from everywhere at those matches.

“When we went to Dnipro, there were guys turning up from China and Japan and all sorts. It was just unbelievable and you never forget those things.

“It will happen again should Aberdeen get to the group stage this time around. There is a lot of money in Aberdeen and there are people from that neck of the woods scattered all over the world. They will be there. Definitely.

“When we went to Madrid to play Atletico, I took the players out to the Bernabeu on the day of the game. I always liked doing something with them to get them out of the hotel, but there were Aberdeen fans everywhere and it was just incredible to see.

“The supporters don’t forget those nights either. I was in Dubai about two-and-a-half years ago and was on the beach with my son at nine o’clock in the morning when an Aberdeen fan came up to me. I must have sat there for around three hours with him and he wouldn’t let me buy a drink.”

Calderwood is certainly happy to raise a toast to the job McInnes is doing at Aberdeen and believes it is the degree of strength-in-depth within the squad he has built in a relatively short space of time that impresses him as much as anything.

“They have been brilliant under Derek,” he said. “Just before he got that job, the two of us were doing something on Sky and he was asking me about it. I told him straight that he should jump at it because it is a fantastic club with fantastic people and a great chairman.

“It is not easy to maintain a challenge the way he did last year, but they are the second best team in the country because he has brought in good players and has good cover. I think they will be second again because of the players they have.

“David Goodwillie was a substitute towards the end of last season and it is great to have guys like that in reserve. He has bought a real talent in Kenny McLean from St Mirren and I am so glad to see Peter Pawlett doing well because I gave him his debut.”

Calderwood is back in Aberdeen today, taking in Jamie Langfield’s testimonial match against Brighton and Hove Albion. He hopes it will give him an opportunity to put to bed some remaining niggles from the end of his time at Pittodrie, when he was sacked on the final day of the campaign after securing a Europa League place with a 2-1 win over Hibernian.

Calderwood insists McInnes has a “wonderful” chairman behind him in Stewart Milne. He still talks about how no expense was spared to have the players looked after on those European trips of old. He just wants Milne to tell him, six years on, why he got rid of him the way he did.

“I still don’t know what happened with me up there,” he said. “If I can talk to wee Stewarty, it would be great. He probably won’t tell me, but he was a brilliant chairman all the same. I still feel sad about leaving Aberdeen because I never found out why.

“OK, you get a wad of money to go, but they could have kept that. Being there was a fantastic experience and I wish Derek all the best now he has the chance to manage that club.”