Derek McInnes is well-known among Parkhead supporters for whining about Celtic.
When he was Aberdeen’s manager, McInnes was always crying over rulings that favoured Celtic over his team.
That didn’t alter much when McInnes went on Celtic when in charge of Kilmarnock.
Now, Hearts are expected to fight Celtic for the title, but McInnes appears to be having none of it, bringing up what the Parkhead team did when he was in charge at Pittodrie.
Derek McInnes ‘at pains’ to downplay Hearts’ title challenge to Celtic
When McInnes was in command of Aberdeen, the club came close to winning the Scottish Premiership title against Celtic.
When asked if Hearts could challenge Brendan Rodgers all the way, McInnes remembers what Celtic did the last time he tried to surpass the Bhoys for the league title.
McInnes told The Scottish Football Social Club, “I’m careful to emphasise that we’re coming from a long way back. Last year, we finished in the bottom six teams. We have a lot to do.
“I remember when we got to second in the league, I believe we were a point behind Celtic against Aberdeen in January, and we didn’t have the money.
“We just didn’t have the money to compete. Celtic, I believe, spent millions in January to get away from us.
“And they demonstrated their strength, and I remember thinking at the time that we’d have to attempt to make it through the season. We lost Danny Ward to Liverpool on the final day of the January transfer window, and Adam Rooney on the second day of February.
“So I lost my numbers nine and one, and we were weaker when the window closed. I believe that any manager and club, regardless of where they are in the league by January, should strive to emerge stronger.
“And I do believe that if we’re in a strong position or if we’ve got work to do still, I do believe that we will get stronger, such is the belief in the recruitment and analytics, I believe we will get stronger every window regardless where we are in the league.”
Derek McInnes drew close to Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic while at Aberdeen.
To be fair to McInnes, he came close to Celtic in the title chase while Brendan Rodgers was in control.
In 2017/18, the year after Brendan Rodgers took management, Aberdeen came close to winning the title.
McInnes finished the season nine points behind Rodgers and three ahead of Rangers, as Celtic won the league with only 82 points.
Clearly, this still bothers the Hearts manager, which is why he refuses to get carried away with the club’s promising start to the season.
xz
