Former Aberdeen defender Alex McLeish says the Dons must do all in their power to keep manager Derek McInnes if bigger clubs come calling for him.
McInnes is firmly on course to lead the Dons to second place in the Premiership for the third successive season, with the Reds eight points ahead of Rangers.
Aberdeen also take on Hibernian in next month’s Scottish Cup semi-finals, with McInnes looking to add more silverware having ended a 19-year wait for a trophy by winning the League Cup three years ago.
McInnes is under contract with Aberdeen until 2019 but was recently linked with the Rangers job prior to the appointment of Portugese head coach Pedro Caixinha.
Gothenburg Great McLeish, who made 693 appearances for the Dons between 1978 and 1994, expects further success to attract more interest, but says it would take a big club to lure him away from Pittodrie.
McLeish, who will be part of the BT Sport team for the Dons’ match against Hearts tomorrow, said: “It would be great news if Aberdeen could get him secured for the foreseeable future.
“Derek might not want to be tied down or if he signs a new deal he might want to put a clause in his contract to allow him to move to a bigger club, like out of the country or, dare I say it, Rangers at some stage, because that has been talked about.
“Derek was linked with it because of the experience he’s got and possibly it’s a time in his career when he could make that next move. But Aberdeen supporters will be desperate to keep him and we’ve seen (Dons chairman) Stewart Milne is desperate to keep him as well.
“Managers have always got their price and when they’ve done well it’s only normal other clubs look at them.
“He’s been in the job a long time and it’s a fickle business we are in. Derek will be aware of that having lost the job at Bristol City a few years ago.
“He will think back to then thinking he’s not a bad coach after all, and when he’s got some resources he can build a team.
“He can only go so far with Aberdeen – I’m not trying to get him out the door and Dons supporters will be cursing me for saying these things, but I’m just talking about the reality.
“I think Aberdeen supporters can be comfortable that he’ll be there for this season and probably next – and it would only take a big club to lure him away.”
McLeish claims he is not surprised to see the Dons in line to beat Rangers to second place in the Premiership despite their significantly lower budget.
McLeish, who managed Rangers between 2001 and 2006, added: “I said at the start of the season that Aberdeen should be favourites to finish second because Rangers were going through transition.
“Derek would probably have felt more pressure than in previous seasons because of Rangers’ entry back to the big time.
“Does the fact Rangers have spent more necessarily mean they should finish above Aberdeen? I thought not because of the consistency of the Aberdeen team and the fact he has worked with those players a long time and created a good mentality.
“He had all those things in his favour and it was going to take something special for Rangers to get above them.
“They are expected to do it, of course, because they are Rangers. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t matter who wears that jersey, Rangers are in a unique band of six to nine clubs in the world who are expected to win every single week.
“It’s expected but it can’t be guaranteed.”
Alex McLeish will be part of BT Sport’s live coverage of tomorrow’s match between Aberdeen and Hearts at Pittodrie from noon.
