Scotland call-ups for trio show move to Aberdeen was right - Derek McInnes

Kenny McLean, Ryan Christie and Graeme Shinnie have all received a call-up to the Scotland squad

Derek McInnes feels the inclusion of three Aberdeen players in the Scotland squad justifies their decisions to move to Pittodrie.

Graeme Shinnie, Kenny McLean and Ryan Christie have all been called up to the full squad for the friendly with Netherlands on 9 November at Pittodrie.

Scott Wright and Scott McKenna are in the under-21 squad, while Kari Arnason is a regular with Iceland.

"It's something that is very important to us," McInnes told BBC Scotland.

"Part of the story and the pitch to sell to players like Shinnie, McLean and Christie is to come here and we'll give you that platform to show you're a good player.

"Hopefully play at the right end of the table, you get amongst cup finals and play on the big stage, and give you those experiences that maybe help you earn the trust of the national manager."

Aberdeen have not had a player capped since McLean featured in Scotland's 1-0 win over Czech Republic in March last year. In recent campaigns both Shinnie and Mark Reynolds have been in Gordon Strachan's Scotland squad, but did not get any playing time.

Before that, Chris Maguire featured in the Nations Cup in 2011, with Scott Severin the last Aberdeen player to be capped in a qualifier when he played against Lithuania in September 2006.

Aberdeen manager McInnes said: "I'm delighted, I'm sure everyone is connected to the club is that we are so well represented in these squads - the under 21s and the full squads.

"We just want the players to go on now and show what they are capable of in a Scotland jersey, and hopefully they can make that breakthrough from just being involved in a friendly game to being a permanent fixture for the new manager when the real stuff comes about."

Kenny McLean is the only current Aberdeen player to have received a full Scotland cap

None of his Scotland trio could get on the scoresheet as Aberdeen drew 2-2 with Hamilton, though defender Arnason celebrated his Iceland call-up when he put the Dons ahead with 16 minutes to go.

However, David Templeton equalised two minutes later after Aberdeen's Greg Stewart had cancelled out Dougie Imrie's opener.

McInnes - who insisted speculation linking him with Rangers' managerial vacancy will not disrupt his work at Aberdeen - feels the international break will be beneficial to his players who are not involved with the national teams, with a heavy schedule of games coming up for his side.

He said: "It's an opportunity to rest down a few of the players, not that they need it at this moment in time too much.

"But we've got more or less eight games in the month of December, from the 29th November to the 30th December, so we're playing a game every three and a bit days.

"Knowing the schedule that we're facing, it's an opportunity to give them some time off."