THERE is the feeling during conversations with Derek McInnes that waterboarding might have to be deployed to encourage him to discuss even that his name has been linked with the managerial vacancy at Rangers.

Next month, he will have been in charge at Aberdeen for four years, lifting the club from relative also-ran status to once more being a major force in Scottish football with two top-tier runners-up places and a League Cup win.

Perhaps more importantly, he has reinvigorated a Dons support that, despite years of mediocrity – and the appointment of a series of managers unable to effect adequate transformation of the team – somehow believed they had a right to re-live the great days overseen by Sir Alex Ferguson.

Only now has that light of hope been switched on, although their resurgence has coincided with the best Celtic team seen for many a year.

McInnes points to a close bond with club chairman Stewart Milne as a key factor in their joint drive to make Aberdeen great again, as President Trump might have been prone to uttering on one of his visits to his golf course up the beach from Pittodrie.

It was not a relationship the Reds manager enjoyed at Bristol City where he did what was required – keep them in the Football League Championship – only to be sent packing 15 months later, despite mitigating circumstances.

“After Bristol City, I had to strip everything back,” he said. “You lose sight of what your job actually is because you’re too busy running about trying to do it all.

“It was a learning experience for me. When we kept Bristol City up after inheriting a really poor situation, that was an opportunity to clear the decks and go and build something. But we had players on long contracts and that didn’t allow us to recruit from a position of strength.”

McInnes had no such difficulty with Milne, the house-building magnate desperate to improve on a track record of appointing a succession of managers who did not deliver what he wanted, a team of consistent winners.

Indeed, a previous chairman, St Johnstone’s Geoff Brown, had also got the best out of the young manager because of their closeness.

“When I came to Aberdeen four years ago I had five weeks to assess the squad,” McInnes said. “We let 13 players go and signed just one. Right from that summer, it was my team. I had an opportunity here to do that. And when a manager gets that, that’s when he can be judged.”

So, does a manager have a shelf-life? Is there an optimum moment for moving on?

“Down in England, the amount of managerial changes that are made isn’t normal behaviour,” he says. “Managers lose their jobs so quickly through excitable owners, but in Scotland it’s different. I’m working for a very experienced chairman who wants the best for the club. We’re now debt-free and work within our means.

“For a manager like myself, you want to work for good people and in good conditions. That’s what I’ve got here at Aberdeen and if fans see a familiar way of working and that you’re building something, it can be worth it in the end.”

The time for reflection, he added, would be at the end of the season, but McInnes, whose work will be attracting attention not only down Govan way but at various clubs south of the border, is as satisfied as he can be that in assembling the squad and the back-room staff he has, it is working well.

Now, as he sets his sights on capitalising on the departure of Kilmarnock manager Lee Clark for League One Bury by taking full points at Rugby Park today, thus cementing their second spot in the Premiership, he dreams of something he sees as more important – a Scottish Cup triumph.

“The way Celtic have been this season has made it difficult for everyone,” he said. “But we can only try and meet our own aspirations. We should always try and build a team at Aberdeen to be successful.

“We’ve been to one cup final this season [the Betfred Cup final against Celtic] and it didn’t go the way we wanted. But we still feel there’s another one left in us. We’ll try to win the Scottish Cup if we can. We believe we can do it. And if we can be the team who finish behind Celtic in the league this year, it will be a brilliant reflection on everyone considering the vast resources Rangers have over everyone else.

“However, I’d rather win the Scottish Cup than finish second. No-one really remembers that you finished second. You get that instant good feeling when you achieve it. But there’s a longevity about winning a cup, it’s more tangible.”