IT is fair to say Stewart Milne hasn't won too many popularity contests during his tenure as Aberdeen chairman.

The property tycoon, who assumed control of the club in 1998, has spent much of that period on the defensive, being lambasted for a perceived failure to invest sufficient wads of his personal wealth in the club by fans starved of the successes of the Sir Alex Ferguson era.

But that isn't the man that Derek McInnes has come to know. Indeed the manager feels the chairman deserves far more credit than he gets for matching the renewed ambition Aberdeen are showing on the field with giant strides off it.

It was hard enough keeping the finances of the club ticking over during an era where the fortunes of bigger clubs than they have gone to the wall. But the complicated deal Milne concluded late last year, involving engineering company WM Donald and Aberdeen Asset Management, to make the club debt free has had a transformative effect on this place. By 2017 the club could have a new training ground and stadium to play in, and with Aberdeen chasing their first top flight title in nearly 30 years, there was still enough cash in the coffers to fund squad improvements like signing Graeme Shinnie on a Bosman and lavishing £300,000 to take Kenny McLean from St Mirren.

An emotional Milne spoke live on Radio Scotland about "19 years, 120 minutes and then f**king penalties" after League Cup victory at Parkhead last March, and McInnes would dearly love to reward him by travelling to the same venue today to keep the league title dream alive.

"The chairman I know is very positive and supportive," said McInnes. "Other people tell me he's excited about the team again and got that real bug again and that's good for everybody.

"We have a good relationship, he's somebody I really enjoy working for," the manager added. "I feel as though I am working for a club and chairman who wants standards to improve, who wants a new stadium, who wants a new training centre, who wants a team of value on the pitch, who wants the city to be excited and fall in love with the team. He is someone who wants people to come along and watch Aberdeen not just through blind loyalty but because they actually want to come to the game. That's the thing we have got at the moment but we know how quickly that can go if we don't keep standards and working hard.

"I feel as though we have upped our game. I don't think anybody is working harder than us in a lot of departments. Our shared commitment is that we just want the club to progress and maximise what we can be."

Some chairmen over the years have periodically desired to pick their manager's team, McInnes merely has to explain his. "I don't need to speak to him every day," said McInnes. "We speak a couple of times a week. I always phone him on a Friday and give him the team, he deserves to know the team. I always give him his place that way, I think that's important, and give him my reasons for the team. We always meet up every two or three weeks. I always go out and see him and sit with him for three or four hours and we go over everything. There's nothing I can't talk to him about."

Aberdeen are undeniably getting stronger but there is a school of thought that this will be the club's best chance to nick a top flight title. Archie Knox, the club's former assistant manager, made that suggestion that this season was a perfect storm as Celtic are bedding in a new manager and big clubs such as Rangers, Hearts and Hibs are all out of the division. A win at Parkhead would move them level on points at the top, albeit having played a game more, with a post-split meeting with Celtic to come at Pittodrie.

"Aberdeen teams should be going to the end of the season with something to play for," said McInnes. "There's nothing worse than playing out a season for the sake of it and for a long time that's the way it was.

"We just have to improve our standards every year and I think we can look ahead with a lot of optimism," he added. "But whether we can maintain a title challenge going forward remains to be seen because, at the minute, there's only one team that can lose it. I am not being clever with that, that's a fact. They [Celtic] are 12 points less than they were last year and we are nine points more so there had to be an improvement from us and a deterioration in their results to get where we are now."

Both matches between the two teams this season have been disappointing from an Aberdeen point of view, resulting in 2-1 defeats, although the "dressing room disappointment" felt after that last minute November defeat has been positively channelled into a 13-match unbeaten league run.

If Aberdeen are to have success this lunchtime - in a match relegated to an obscenely early noon kick-off - much responsibility will fall on the shoulders or Ryan Jack. The midfielder, whose fifth appearance for the club came in the infamous 9-0 reverse at Celtic Park in November 2010, will have his hands full checking the thrusts of Scott Brown and his old pal Stuart Armstrong. Armstrong, schooled at Hazlehead Academy whilst he was at St Machar Academy, briefly shared an Aberdeen youth team with Jack, while the pair are close pals and contemporaries with the Scotland Under-21 side.

"Stuart and I played together for a while in Aberdeen and I knew him really well from the Scotland set ups," said Jack. "It's definitely no surprise to see he has made an immediate impact at Celtic because he has always had great ability. When you see players like that doing so well it gives you the motivation to get to that level yourself one day."

Crucial talks about extending Jack's own deal beyond the summer of 2016 have been delayed until the summer. Regardless of whether they can pass the Ferguson acid test of going and winning in Glasgow this lunchtime, Aberdeen have a manager and chairman intent on empire building again.