Nottingham Forest are ready to test Aberdeen’s resolve by making a new bid for Scott McKenna.
Our sister paper the Sunday Mail revealed that Forest and QPR had failed with £3million offers for the Scotland international.
But the Championship club are now set to come back with an improved bid for the 22-year-old.
And if Forest fail to land McKenna they may swoop for Burnley’s Ben Gibson.
Meanwhile, Derek McInnes has challenged Aberdeen new boy Ryan Hedges to follow in the footsteps of Jonny Hayes and Gary Mackay-Steven by pitching in with a double-figure goal tally.
The Welsh international arrived on a Bosman from Barnsley and after some impressive Europa League displays McInnes expects even more, starting with Thursday’s return clash with Chikhura Sachkhere.
The Pittodrie manager knows a big weapon in his armoury in recent seasons has been the goals from out wide, with Hayes, GMS and Niall McGinn all chipping in.
McInnes said: “Ryan is somebody I want to be more than a good player. I want him to make the difference to my team.
“When I met him at the end of last season, I was keen to try to look for improvements in his game. Those improvements are about having more impact on the team and helping us to get results.
“I want him to be a goalscorer, a maker and to be relevant in the final third.
“He has a great delivery and we’ve always had good wide players who contribute, guys like McGinn, Gary Mackay-Steven and Hayes who got into double figures.
“We have had wide players who contribute and we want Ryan to do the same. He has a lot of power and pace and it is all about him showing what he has in his game time and time again.”
The 24-year-old was billed as a right-winger when he arrived but since then has employed a number of other positions, from attacking midfield to left-wing. For a spell in last week’s Europa League opener, he was even pitched in at left-back.
McInnes also believes he could be an out-and-out centre forward if needed.
He said: “Ryan can play anywhere. I actually think he has the pace and power to play No. 9 at times.
“Predominantly, he has been a wide player on the right or off the left but he’s more of a goal threat coming off the right because it naturally gets him closer to the goal.
“A few performances on the left for Wales have also been very good so he gives us good versatility.
“When you see him running without the ball, and all the work we do in terms of training, he has a great stride and a lovely running style.
“He has loads in the tank and is a powerful boy. We want to see that as well as the stop-start stuff.
“He can play in tight areas but when he opens his legs up and goes, he is fast and we want to see more of that.”
