Manager puts pen to paper on extended contract

Aberdeen Football Club has received a pre-League Cup Final fillip ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Inverness Caley Thistle at Celtic Park with the news that manager Derek McInnes and assistant Tony Docherty have signed two-year contract extensions that will see will see the pair remain at Pittodrie until at least the summer of 2017.

Confirming the news, Chairman Stewart Milne said. “It’s fantastic that Derek and Tony are committing themselves for the long haul and I’m sure our supporters will be as pleased as everyone at the Club is. We were convinced from day one that they didn’t see the task at the Club as being anything other than a long term project and having our management team on long term contracts, in addition to an important nucleus of the playing squad on similar deals, bodes extremely well for the future.

“Derek and Tony have had a major impact on the Club since taking over the reins, we are all delighted with the progress to date, but as Derek keeps reminding us, we are very much at the start of a journey, hopefully Sunday will be another major step along the way, however success to him will not be viewed on the back of one good season, but on being able to sustain the Club at the top end of the league, competing at the final stages for trophies, playing in Europe, on a sustained basis, and that is also what everyone associated with the Club desires”.

Manager McInnes added. “When Tony and I arrived at Pittodrie we knew we would need time to transform it into our squad. We have demonstrated this season that we are definitely heading in the right direction but we’re far from the finished article. We both really enjoy working at the Club but we are only some way towards what we would like to achieve here. It’s great that the Board also believes we are doing a decent job and the additional contract allows us time to really plan for the future in terms of developing the squad.”

Derek and Tony took charge of Aberdeen last year, taking over from Craig Brown and Archie Knox for the five post-split SPL matches.