DEREK MCINNES missed training this morning as Rangers step up their bid to appoint him at Ibrox.
The Aberdeen boss and his assistant Tony Docherty were absent as the first team squad prepared for their match against Dundee on Friday night.
Barry Robson, Paul Sheerin and Gordon Marshall led the session at Balgownie Barracks.
PICTURES: McInnes set for showdown talks with Aberdeen chairman Milne – as team trains without him https://t.co/xCdZUksrmt pic.twitter.com/bUJvH9LJhd
— EveningExpress Sport (@ee_sport) December 6, 2017
According to the BBC, McInnes will meet with club chairman Stewart Milne today and is keen to listen to the offer from Ibrox.
Last night, the Dons announced that they had rejected a request from Rangers to open talks with the Pittodrie boss.
Aberdeen refuse Rangers permission to talk to manager Derek McInnes
Dons legend Willie Miller told our sister title the Evening Express: “Ultimately it is now in Derek McInnes’ hands, not Aberdeen’s. If Derek doesn’t want to talk to Rangers, great – end of story.
“However, he is an ex-Rangers player and an ambitious manager. Whether he thinks Rangers are in a fit state to allow him to progress his career is another matter.
“It is a long hard thought process for him, but the next step is up to Derek McInnes.”
The club’s record goalscorer, Joe Harper, urged McInnes to turn the offer down and ‘hold fire for a more stable club.’
He said: “Anyone who takes on that job is on a hiding to nothing.
“It would take mammoth funds to rebuild the Rangers squad to the level of launching a valid title assault on Celtic – cash the Ibrox board don’t have.
“The bottom line for any new Rangers boss is he has to stop Celtic winning 10 in a row.
“I doubt Rangers’ new gaffer will be afforded the required patience or time to do this.
“Rangers fans will demand they defeat Celtic regularly – or else.”
Rangers’ protracted recruitment process and associated rumour mill has frustrated the former St Johnstone and Bristol City boss.
After Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Gers – the second loss his team has suffered against the Ibrox team in the space of five days – McInnes admitted his annoyance that speculation linking him to the Govan vacancy had been allowed to “drag on and on”.
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