BRENDAN RODGERS has tipped Derek McInnes to one day land a top job in one of English football’s biggest clubs.
The Celtic manager is a huge admirer of his contemporary at Aberdeen, the two teams meet at Pittodrie tonight on league business, and the Irishman believes McInnes is more than capable of proving his ability down south despite a bruising experience with Bristol City before he made his move to the North East.
Aberdeen have proved to be the only challenge to Celtic in any competition this season and while McInnes is settled at his current club, there might well come a time when a second opportunity presents itself for him to try his luck in England once again.
Read more: Tom Rogic prepared to play through the summer to be ready for Celtic's Champions League qualifiers
Asked if McInnes could get another chance in England, Rodgers said: “Yeah, it's just about timing. That’s all it is. He is a very good manager; he was unfortunate more with circumstances.
“You think of his management career and what he did up here before he went down. He did very well. Bristol City was a tough gig when he was there. They were going through managers.
“'It's all about timing and at that time with Derek it was difficult. But can he go to England and work in a big job? Of course he can - 150% he can.
“I think he is happy - when I speak to him he is very happy at Aberdeen. He sees a plan going forward there for a new training ground and hopefully a new stadium. Aberdeen looks a great city and a passionate football city.”
Rodgers’s first memories of Aberdeen as a club was the glory days of the 1980s when Alex Ferguson’s team could lay claim to being the best in Europe.
That may never happen again but the admiration Rodgers has for the club in its present state, who stand in his Celtic side’s way of a treble, is genuine
“I remember that fantastic era for Aberdeen,” said Rodgers. “They had Stewart McKimmie, big Alex McLeish, Willie Miller, Neilly Cooper, and Jim Bett who was a fantastic player. They were obviously very, very good. These are different times but they are obviously a big club up here with a great history and tradition.
Read more: Tom Rogic prepared to play through the summer to be ready for Celtic's Champions League qualifiers
“But when I look at the job Derek has done, he’s been magnificent. He went in four years ago after coming up from Bristol City whether it was a good, bad or indifferent experience.
“So he’s gone into Aberdeen and I think he’s really imposed his way of working there. I can obviously look at it a bit closer since I’ve been here to see the job he’s done. I mean they haven’t got a training ground!
"That is something fundamental you need if you want to develop players to the level Aberdeen’s expectations will be at.
“So he is developing players without having a stable environment for them to come into. He’s made them very competitive.
“I remember at the start of this season that the drums were being beating quite loudly about that Rangers were going to come in and win the league or certainly be the closest challenger, and Aberdeen are sitting nine points clear in second place having been consistent.
“We’ve played them four times and they have all been tough games. I think he’s done a brilliant job there.”
The fear for Aberdeen supporters is that McInnes will sooner rather than later believe he has taken the team as far as he can. For all the club is well run, Celtic are not going to be caught for years and it might be that finishing second best isn’t good enough after a while for this ambitious manager.
Read more: Tom Rogic prepared to play through the summer to be ready for Celtic's Champions League qualifiers
“He recruited very well last summer adding to the boys who are very much in tune with how he works,” said Rodgers. “They have performed well for him though some may leave in the summer now - when there is a good chance to go again.
“But I think how he has done that in the time he has been there has been exceptional. You hear that phrase banded about - but what does it mean?
“Has he taken them as far as he can? Well, he will want to do consistently well and take them as far as he can. He will finish runner-up again this year and this year the standard has been very good - and consistently very good."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here