Matty Kennedy: Aberdeen boss expects to wait for St Johnstone winger
- Published
Matty Kennedy has scored five goals in 21 appearances this season
Aberdeen manager Derek McInnes does not expect pre-contract signing Matty Kennedy to move to Pittodrie during the January transfer window.
The winger, 25, has agreed a three-year deal to move from Scottish Premiership rivals St Johnstone this summer.
McInnes has signed midfielder Dylan McGeouch from Sunderland and is keen to add to his squad further in January.
"For me, Matty was a pre-contract to work with him next summer," the Pittodrie manager said.
"I fully respect St Johnstone's wishes if they want to hold on to Matty and I am always reluctant to speak as I wouldn't like managers speaking about my player who was still working for them."
Kennedy, who started his career with Kilmarnock and had spells on loan to Tranmere Rovers, MK Dons and Hibernian after joining Everton, has scored five goals in 21 appearances this term.
Hearts had also been keen on the Belfast-born former Scotland youth international, who joined St Johnstone after being released by Cardiff City in 2018 and earned a Northern Ireland call-up in October.
"Obviously we weren't the only club in town trying to get him, he had other options. But having spoken with Matty, I felt the conversations that we had was two-way - how keen he was to come here and how keen I was to get him here," McInnes said.
A newspaper report linked Scotland right-back Stephen O'Donnell, who is a free agent with Kilmarnock this summer, with Aberdeen, but asked if the 27-year-old former Dons youth would be of interest, McInnes replied: "There's nothing on that at all."
The manager said there had been no bids for his own two prize assets - striker Sam Cosgrove and Scotland centre-half Scott McKenna.
"It is probably a certainty that they are on the radar of a lot of clubs, but that doesn't always mean that the offers are coming in - it has been relatively quiet on that front," he said.
McGeouch signed in time to join Aberdeen on their winter training camp in Dubai.
"Dylan has not had a lot of football of late, but we are delighted to get another good player in the building, so we will continue to chip away and see what else is there for us," McInnes added.
"We spoke at the end of the month about trying to bring in two or three that can help us with the challenges ahead and obviously we have got four longer-term injuries at the minute, so I would still like to be able to add to the squad."