Derek McInnes: I saw off seven Hibs and six Hearts managers at Aberdeen - now I want to take Kilmarnock into Europe

Derek McInnes can still see the sweat globules pinging off the legend’s forehead and he can still hear the incongruous accompaniment - the soft, sweet sound of the Eagles. “The Gaffer would come roaring into the gym, shut down my Oasis or the Verve, rev up the cross-trainer and shout over to me: ‘Now McInnes, this is real f****n’ music!’ He couldn’t sing - brilliant at many things, terrible at that. And I’m pretty sure he was still using cassettes and not CDs. That was Walter Smith.”

Derek McInnes demanding more from his players. It's a "huge privilege" being a footballer and "lazy days" won't be tolerated.

And now it’s Derek McInnes. At the age of 52 he finds himself listening to his old and much-missed mentor’s favourite band, with the Eagles’ “Take It Easy” summing up his current state of mind. He’s happy in his work as manager of Kilmarnock, the bitterness over the end at Aberdeen having finally left him. The sun is streaming through the skylight at home and very soon he’ll be on the golf course.

This is his day off so I’m grateful he’s made time for me. That would normally have been yesterday but Killie’s media-call was moved due to what the press office, with understandable excitement, called “heightened demand”. After duffing up both halves of the Old Firm, McInnes is manager of the moment.

He thinks some more about the age he is now - the age Smith and his Rangers assistant Archie Knox were when he was in their charge - and, though I prompt him on this, how he’s becoming the elder statesman of the Scottish top-flight game, the one to call for advice and encouragement.

He says: “I’m just off the phone with Barry [Robson] who’s in Sweden with Aberdeen and Tony [Docherty], another of my old coaches, is manager at Dundee. These guys are making their own way now. Lee Johnson was one of my players at Bristol City and I had Callum Davidson at St Johnstone. Jordon Brown was a lad I had to let go when I went to Aberdeen but suddenly he’s the manager of Peterhead asking me my thoughts on a couple of players.”

Not having interviewed him before, I must admit I thought McInnes would be a fairly serious subject. This was based almost entirely on what we see of him in the dugout and post-match. There are never any gags a la David Martindale of Livingston and nor does he strive for a lyrical phrase like Hibernian’s Johnson. But he likes a funny story, such as this one about Robson: “At Aberdeen my old chairman, Stewart Milne, would lend me his nice place at Gleneagles when I thought I needed the VIP treatment for a potential new signing, or else I’d book a fancy hotel. With Barry, though, I didn’t think I had to bother.

“We’d been team-mates at Rangers and Dundee United - a brilliant guy - and I knew he’d just bought a house in Inverurie and put his kids in school locally so I decided: the Ashfield for fish and chips. It’s a great chippy, mind, please say that. Barry was after a two-year deal. It could only be one because of his age, I said, and he’d have to earn the second. He harrumphed at this and insisted he had other options. He didn’t. So I got him to sign and after he finished up playing I created a coaching role for him so he could be kept at the club. But that day I’d forgotten my wallet. I whizzed out the door shouting back: ‘Good man, can you get the suppers?’”

McInnes is thrilled by Kilmarnock’s fast start. Four points from the first two league games were always going to be gleefully grabbed after what had been a “painful” first season back in the Premiership, McInnes having been the bogeyman to ruin the Arbroath fairytale to return the Rugby Park club there. But what a four points: victory over Rangers and a draw at Tynecastle which probably should have been another win. Then last Sunday Killie’s vibrant football was too much for Celtic and Brendan Rodgers, who’d been pretty much unbeatable for McInnes’ Aberdeen.

That success in the Viaplay Cup means no Treble, for the Celts at least, this time, so does our man think Kilmarnock have offered hope to the rest for a more competitive season? “The points gap last time between the Old Firm and everyone else was the biggest for a while. If Celtic and Rangers do their jobs and are on it and going toe-to-toe then any team will struggle to maintain a proper challenge. I don’t think by any stretch of the imagination that team could be us, but what we do want to do is be as good as we can be. The most pleasing aspect for me so far is how quickly all the new players, most of whom weren’t getting games for their previous clubs, have settled so quickly. If I can maximise the budget and everything that’s been afforded me, if the team can deliver the performances of which they’re capable, then we can be top six.

“Last season, last game, St Mirren were still going for Europe. Pre-split I think we were 12 points behind them. Can we find four more wins from somewhere? We know we’ve got work to do. If we just manage to stay up then that will not be a job done well. I want top six, I’d like a crack at Europe and I’d love for this grand old club to win a cup.”

McInnes’ most-used words are “work” and “job”. To some, this may reinforce an impression of dourness but today there are more ripping yarns (and just wait until you hear the one about Andrei Kanchelskis). It needs restating, though, that football management is a job and involves considerable work. Relentless speculation from jabbering pundits and the great unfiltered on social media may almost be recasting those in the profession as reality show contestants, vote-offs every week, but McInnes isn’t having any of it.