GRAEME SHINNIE insists Pedro Caixinha’s statements about Aberdeen’s cycle coming to an end are being ignored by Derek McInnes’s camp.
The Rangers manager expressed the belief towards the end of last season that the Pittodrie club’s era as the main challengers to Celtic was on the slide and that his own team would soon pick up the gauntlet.
Speaking in May, the Portuguese said: “We are starting our cycle so we are going to be up and up and up. That’s the way the teams behave and organise themselves and it’s our job to know when one cycle is about to come down and we do the planning in order to prevent that.”
However, talking yesterday at Hampden ahead of this weekend’s Premiership kick-off, Aberdeen captain Shinnie claimed he and his team-mates had nothing to prove. He said: “There were a lot of people last year saying Rangers are back and that they would finish second or first.
“But we don’t need that to motivate us. We know what’s in the squad and we will look to do the business.
“We don’t need to prove anything. We want to do well for ourselves and the supporters. We know the possibilities for this squad. We want to do the hard work and focus on ourselves to try to achieve our goals.
“It doesn’t give us any more motivation than we already had. He’s probably just said that to upset the momentum we have and the morale in the team.
“But it won’t give us anything extra. We want to be up challenging Celtic. They blew us away last year with the form they showed but we will try to get as close as we can.”
As much as running Celtic closer in the Premiership is the main objective for Aberdeen, their immediate priority is securing a place in the Europa League play-off round by overcoming Apollon Limasson on Thursday.
Aberdeen hold a 2-1 lead from last Thursday’s first leg and Shinnie, who scored the winner last week, added: “We haven’t really focused on the league yet, to be honest, as we have been looking at Europe so much.
“That has been the case every year since I’ve been at the club. We are looking at Thursday and then we will think about Sunday.
“The Europa League represents a massive chance for us to do
well. It’s a competition we want to be in.”
It’s now nine years since Aberdeen welcomed the likes of Bayern Munich to Pittodrie under Jimmy Calderwood, and it’s something Shinnie would love to emulate as the class of 2017.
“It would be massive if we can get to the group stage – unreal,” he said.
“But that’s a long way away yet. We have a massive
game this week and once we get through, we could have a tough tie.
“We are desperate to get in the group stage. People talk about the Bayern Munich and Copenhagen games, that’s what we want.
“As a squad and a club that’s the aim.”
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