Derek McInnes accepts Aberdeen face a fight to keep £7million-rated Scott McKenna ahead of the English transfer deadline.
Nottingham Forest and QPR have been in talks with the Dons over the Scotland international.
Neither side met Aberdeen’s valuation – believed to be upwards of £7m – but McInnes expects further moves and new clubs bidding before the English window closes next Thursday.
The Dons boss, who sees his side take on Chikhura in the second leg of their Europa League tie tonight, said: “I spoke to Scott on Tuesday and he’s just focusing on the game.
“There is a week to go in the window in England so it will all start to heat up now.
“There’s a real possibility clubs will come back in and every chance there could be more clubs than have been in for him already. We’re not encouraging offers but we anticipate there will be others.”
Aberdeen have turned down Swansea, Celtic, Hull and Aston Villa in recent windows.
He said: “The valuation hasn’t been met as it stands, so that’s something I have to leave for the chairman and board.
“I have a high opinion of Scott, he’s the best defender this country has and he’ll get to 50 caps pretty quickly. He has a lot of attributes and still a lot to learn but if someone is going to learn it will be him.”
McInnes is in no doubt that McKenna’s value will rocket as soon as he goes to England like it did with Virgil van Dijk.
He said: “We have had this situation before with our league and have seen so many players go down to England where there valuation has increased pretty quickly.
“Sometimes people have just played a handful of games and it has shot up. Look at Van Dijk, once he was in a Southampton strip he was worth a lot more.
“John McGinn is another and then you have Kenny McLean at Norwich. You can see why Celtic are digging their heels in over Kieran Tierney.”
McInnes also wants to add a right-sided player that can cover a number of positions, with Mikey Devlin and Ash Taylor both out injured.
He said: “I’m hoping to get another defender.”
