AS Stewart Milne, the Aberdeen chairman, insisted the club could lose Derek McInnes if plans for a new £50m stadium and training complex are not green lit when they come before the local authority in October, the manager himself described the paucity of proper facilities as an embarrassment.

At a glitzy media conference to underline the stark reality that failure to move out of the dilapidated Pittodrie Stadium and into a state-of-the-art home which would include a £10m facility for a football academy and training pitches, Milne took the view that McInnes, who spurned Sunderland’s close-season advances to take over their ailing team, could head-off at the next time of asking.

The manager, meanwhile, brought a realism to the event as he relayed a couple of anecdotes of being doubled-booked with a bunch of bankers on one of the pitches they use locally and by a schoolgirls’ lacrosse team on another.

Indeed, McInnes was in passionate mode as he described those incidents, pointing to his side’s successes as having them riding high in the Premiership but bottom of the league table for a training site.

“I am embarrassed with where we are at the minute,” he said. “I have had numerous conversations with the chairman about this since day one. We have the pitches at junior club Banks o’Dee, the Aberdeen Sports Village, pitches at Balgownie and at the Gordon’s Barracks.

“The facilities are okay but they are not our own and not conducive for us to improve. It has to change. To give an example, on December 30 last year we played Hearts at Tynecastle.

“The day before, the weather was so bad we had to book Banks o’ Dee so we could do some outdoor training on astroturf to get some work done. We would normally name our team, decide on our shape and go through our set-plays on a Friday.

“We had to have our session cut short because Royal Bank of Scotland workers decided to play on the pitches during their lunch hour and it was double-booked.

“We were trying to finish off a session ahead of an important game in front of a sell-out crowd at Tynecastle and we had some angry banker saying we were on their pitch.

“It is laughable but that is our reality. We ignored him and got our work done. But that wasn’t a private session. Anyone watching could have put our team out and given Hearts an advantage.

“It was a similar case in February when we went to Ross County for a Scottish Cup tie and the weather was similar. We booked the Sports Village and it was double-booked with the Hazlehead Academy women’s lacrosse team.

“We have an ambition to be the best we can be but we aren’t giving ourselves a chance to be that.”

Milne sought widespread public support for the new facility in the Westhill area of the city as he stressed that there would be massive negative implications over the future of the club were the plans rejected when they come before Aberdeen City Council in October.

“I would go as far as saying that if we had had a negative decision on these plans earlier in the year it would have been extremely difficult to convince Derek to stay,” he said.

“I think if it doesn’t go through now then it would put Derek in a tough position as it would definitely weigh heavily if he is made new propositions in the future. It would really go against our arguments for keeping him here long term if we don’t deliver this project.

“After all we have spent the best part of 18 years and £5m to get to this point. So what can I say to him if this is rejected? Tell him we’ll get another thing in place in the next four, five, six or seven years, because we simply don’t know.

“There are no other options and if it is a negative then the consequences are very severe.”