DEREK McINNES has admitted he agonised over whether he should leave Aberdeen for Sunderland, but insisted he will not go into the minutiae of why he rejected the English Championship club.

The Aberdeen manager also revealed that the approach from the Black Cats was not the first attempt to lure him away from Pittodrie and said his signing of Greg Stewart on a year-long loan from Birmingham City underlined his ambition for the coming season.

“I thought long and hard about the Sunderland offer,” he said. “There have been opportunities in my time at Aberdeen when maybe there has been interest from elsewhere but I quickly moved away from it.

“I was keen to speak to Sunderland once the club had granted permission for me to discuss things with them. I wanted to follow it up to get a more balanced call on it.

“There was a lot to be persuaded by from the Sunderland opportunity, so many positives and it’s a fantastic club.

“But having taken everything into consideration and taking my time over the whole process, I decided to stay.

“I’ve always said it would be a huge wrench for me to leave Aberdeen. I love my job and we’ve had a lot of good times and I was happy to remain.

“I don’t want to go into the detail over why I decided against moving.

“Nobody can question my commitment here. I’m ambitious and I still have ambitions for Aberdeen but you can never say never because football can change so quickly in a positive and a negative way.”

With former Dundee attacker Stewart now on board as well as Greg Tansey and Ryan Christie, on loan from Celtic, plus securing goalkeeper Joe Lewis on a longer-term contract, McInnes is determined to maintain the progress Aberdeen have registered on his watch.

But he also revealed that a bid from Rangers had been rejected for his midfield star Kenny McLean.

McInnes, as part of his decision to remain at Pittodrie, had been given assurances by club chairman Stewart Milne that no under-contract personnel would be allowed to leave during the current transfer window, though what happens in January is another matter, especially as McLean’s agreement expires in a year.

“We don’t need to sell and we are not going to sell,” he said. “Kenny is relaxed about it, he’s under contract here and he’s more than comfortable with it.

“We are looking forward to the season with Kenny in our team.”

Stewart, meanwhile, appeared relieved that the negotiations to extricate him from Harry Redknapp’s Birmingham had been concluded as he disclosed that McInnes tried to sign him a year ago before his £500,000 transfer from Dens Park to the Blues.

“The manager tried to get a deal sorted last summer,” he said, “but couldn’t agree anything with Dundee and I went down south and it didn’t work out too well.

“It’s always good when you get that wanted feeling from someone. It’s like that in any job - when you feel wanted you feel good about yourself.

“And you can’t turn down the chance to go and play in England.

“It didn’t go as I planned at Birmingham and I didn’t play as much as thought I would have. Three managers in one season didn’t help either.

“There were a lot of changes – a change of formation, didn’t play wingers. When Gianfranco Zola came in he didn’t play wingers and I struggled to get in squads.”