Aberdeen forward Stevie May is unsurprised Dons manager Derek McInnes has once again been linked with the Rangers hotseat.
The Scotland international, who also played under McInnes at St Johnstone, believes it is inevitable the Dons manager will be linked with jobs north and south of the border after establishing the Reds as Scottish football’s second force.
The Aberdeen support heading to this afternoon’s meeting with Ross County at Pittodrie will be hoping they won’t be witnessing McInnes’ final match in the Dons dugout.
The 46-year-old is the odds-on favourite to replace Pedro Caixinha at Ibrox after his calamitous time in charge of the Light Blues finally came to an end on Wednesday.
But May says the Aberdeen players are not concerned by reports linking McInnes as a potential successor at the Govan club.
The Dons attacker said: “It’s one of them, every time you see a job available there’s managers getting linked all over the place.
“It’s not something we’re overthinking. We’re preparing for the game and that’s all we’re focussing on. It’s not something we’re worrying about. The full focus is on Ross County.
“Most clubs I’ve been at, when a job has come up, the manager has been spoken about.
“More so with the manager here.
“Every time the Rangers job comes up, he’s one of the favourites.
“It’s not something that hasn’t happened before so it’s not something we’re worrying about.
“Any job that comes up now, the gaffer is going to be linked with. That’s football, it happens.
“It would be more worrying if he wasn’t being linked. It’s credit to Aberdeen and how they’ve performed over the last few years.
“The manager is right up there.
“One of the main reasons I came back to Scotland was to work with him again.”
May, meanwhile, says the Dons are determined to respond to Wednesday’s morale-sapping 3-0 defeat by Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic with a victory against Owen Coyle’s Ross County this afternoon.
He added: “The match against Celtic was disappointing but we’ve not dwelled on it too much.
“We said after the game just to put it to the back of our minds.
“They’ve got a lot of quality and they played as well as I’ve seen them play. We started the game and thought it was alright for the first 20 minutes, and then they got the goal and it was poor on our part. From the on it was backs against the wall.
“But we said we’d put it to the back of our minds and focus on Ross County on Saturday. That’s what we’ve been doing. Morale is good and we’re ready to go.”