Former Aberdeen captain Russell Anderson believes Derek McInnes has raised the bar at Pittodrie and has backed the Dons boss to rise to the challenge of building another team capable of winning silverware.
McInnes is anticipating as many as nine new faces arriving to the club this summer following the departure of several players including captain Graeme Shinnie.
Motherwell’s Curtis Main is expected to be unveiled as one new arrival while former Don Ash Taylor has held talks about a return to Pittodrie after terminating his contract with English League Two side Northampton Town.
Anderson, assistant manager at Highland League club Formartine United, believe the need to rebuild the squad stems from the consistency the Dons have shown under McInnes but is confident his former boss can strengthen the squad again.
He said: “When Derek came in Craig Brown and Archie Knox had done an excellent job in stabilising the club. I was down in England and I remember watching the team prior to Craig and Archie coming in and they were in trouble.
“Craig and Archie came in and saved the club from relegation and they left a lot of blocks in place for Derek to come and kick on and he has certainly done that.
“He has taken it to a new level, he has raised the bar and the expectation levels are a lot higher now. The challenge is to do that every season and when you are losing your best players it proves a challenge to replace them all the time.
“You are not going to get every single signing right but more often than not he has made good signings, developed them and they have moved on, the best example being Kenny McLean.
“He has done a really good job at Aberdeen.”
Anderson, who captained the Dons to League Cup final glory under McInnes in 2014, knows the task facing his former manager is a difficult one but has backed McInnes to rebuild the side.
He said: “Aberdeen will be fully prepared for players moving on and will have been doing their work since January, maybe even before that, in trying to bring players in and hopefully they can do that.
“There is, generally speaking, a high turnover of players every summer and that is due to the number of loan players at clubs now.
“Other players like Graeme Shinnie are going to be highly regarded and Graeme has decided to move on. That’s the nature of football these