McInnes focused on Aberdeen amid Rangers interest

McInnes rejected an offer to take over at Sunderland in June and the Sky Bet Championship club are now looking for another boss after sacking Grayson minutes after Tuesday's 3-3 draw with Bolton.

The Dons manager could soon have another decision to make. He is the favourite for the vacant Rangers role, but no approach has been made by the Ibrox club, who were more than £10million in debt before embarking on an expensive summer transfer spree and paying off sacked boss Pedro Caixinha.

While Rangers take their time, there has been much speculation over whether McInnes would leave Aberdeen for Ibrox, where he had five years as a player.

McInnes did not get embroiled in any discussion of Rangers at his latest media conference, but he admitted managers have to do their due diligence when offered any job.

"For a manager who's in a job he is happy in, then without question, but sometimes a manager can rush into a situation when they are not in employment or not in a good situation, and they might think something else is better," he said.

"Managers aren't blameless when they don't get results, of course, but whether a manager is deemed a success or not sometimes can be far more difficult when it's not a stable environment.

"You see so many instances where managers, when allowed to concentrate on the job in hand under a good structure, then results have a better chance of following.

"I don't know the ins and outs of what has happened over the last few months and obviously results haven't been what he would have wanted, but there's no doubt Simon Grayson is a good manager. He has proved that.

"Unfortunately he hasn't been able to get the results that maybe that record he has had in the past indicated. I think you need to look a bit further than the manager at times."

McInnes confirmed no approach had been made as he focuses on Saturday's Ladbrokes Premiership encounter at Hamilton.

"It's business as normal," he added. "We've always been the same, how we deal with things, whether it's criticism, praise or speculation. It's always about the next game and that's exactly how it's been."

It was not a mundane week at the club, though. Graeme Shinnie, Ryan Christie and Kenny McLean were all called up by Scotland ahead of next week's Pittodrie friendly against Holland.

"I couldn't be happier," McInnes said. "All three were absolutely delighted and thrilled, as we all were at the club. The three lads have all been chapping at the door for a while.

"The challenge for them is, don't just take a breath and a pat on the back for being involved in the squad, make sure they do all they can to be a regular. Hopefully they show through how they train and perform next week, what we see on a daily basis.

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