Forget Emilio Izaguirre. Forget Lee Wallace too.
Aberdeen will soon be home to the best left back in Scotland in Graeme Shinnie according to Dons midfielder Jonny Hayes.
Shinnie will become an Aberdeen player this summer after signing a pre-contract agreement to move to Pittodrie on a three-year deal from Premiership rivals Inverness Caley Thistle.
The Dons have seen off competition from a number of English Champion-ships clubs including Birmingham City, who have his older brother Andrew on their books, to land Shinnie.
And Hayes is delighted to be welcoming his former team-mate to Pittodrie and believes manager Derek McInnes has landed the best in the country in 23-year-old Shinnie.
He said: “When I heard Graeme was coming I was delighted.
“He has proved he is the best left back in the league over the past couple of years and was in the team of the year last year.
“He just gets better and better and he will be a great acquisition to the squad.
“For me he has been Caley Thistle’s standout player for the last 24 months.
“I’m delighted he’s coming.
“He’s a good lad as well, I know him from being in Inverness and I rate him highly on and off the pitch.”
Hayes has been hugely impressed by Shinnie’s development at Caley Jags and believes a loan move to the Highland League proved to be the making of his future team-mate.
He said: “I watched Graeme develop over the last six years, he was a young lad when I was first up there.
“He went out to Forres Mechanics on loan in 2011, got some games and came back in and that month or two playing in the Highland League seemed to change him.
“He started knocking on the door for selection in the Inverness first team and was really unlucky those first couple of years I was there not to play more games than he did.
“He’s proved his versatility, whether it be left back, wide left or central midfield over the last couple of years.”
The announcement of Shinnie’s impending arrival caught everyone by surprise on Sunday, not least the Aberdeen players.
Hayes joked he should take the credit for the player deciding to join the club following his on-field cajoling pleas to Shinnie to move to Pittodrie in the two previous meetings of the clubs this season.
He said: “When the rumours started every time we would play them I would have a word in Graeme’s ear and ask him if he was coming or not.
“He would never give much away.
“So I am delighted we have finally got him.
“I think it’s a great bit of business by the manager. It took the whole squad by surprise, it was actually my missus who told me he had signed, I didn’t even know it was happening.
“It shows you how well the manager goes about his business that no one in the dressing room had even an inkling he was signing.”
With the Dons preparing for a League Cup semi-final against Dundee United on Saturday Hayes has grown accustomed to the increased levels of expectation at Pittodrie.
The Dubliner knows adjusting to life in the Granite City will be no issue for Aberdonian Shinnie and has backed the defender to be a successful addition to the Dons squad.
When asked what the differences between Inverness and Aberdeen are, Hayes said: “Well I’m sure he likes a Nando’s like most footballers do – and there’s none of them in Inverness.
“There’s a little bit more expectation here with the bigger crowds and signing for a so-called bigger club.
“He’s still a young lad as well and he has signed a three-year deal so this is a bigger shop window for him.
“Whether he wants to go on and win inter-national caps and so on Aberdeen can provide him with a better platform for that.
“But he’s an Aberdonian so I think he already understands that and what the club us all about.
“He’ll have his family around and I am sure he has already spoken to a lot of his friends and family over the last few months.
“I am sure it was a hard decision for him to make to turn down a new contract with Inverness.
“But I was always confident when I heard the manager was looking to sign him that he could bring him down.”