Danny Armstrong Kilmarnock transfer update as Derek McInnes drops lovebomb amid Hearts interest
Derek McInnes expects Danny Armstrong will still be a Kilmarnock player come the end of the transfer window - and insists he will remain a key man until May.
The winger is out of contract in the summer and Hearts - who Killie face tomorrow - are keen on a move. The Rugby Park club have also knocked back a six-figure bid from an unnamed European club for the 27-year-old. But McInnes has full faith Armstrong won’t lose focus on the park while attention off it increases ahead of the Premiership trip to Tynecastle. He said: “I’ve not seen anything of note with that. I think Danny is always the same.
“We’ve got so many players out of contract but the focus always seems to be on Danny for some reason, which is totally unfair. I love working with Danny and I have done since I’ve been here. I wanted that to continue.
“As far as I’m aware, he’s not signed with anyone else so while there’s still a chance, we work towards having that. I don’t see anything happening in January for him. He’s been a key player for us over the last couple of seasons and we hope he’s a key player for us in the run-in this season.
“At times, us as managers need to accept that when players are out of contract, and we’ve got a load of boys in that situation, they’ve got advisors and aspirations to maybe look at other things.
“I’m totally comfortable with that and we should all be. I could probably utilise my budget more by getting more loans in, but I wanted to get away from that as a club. I wanted us to have a bit more stability. When a team like Kilmarnock finishes fourth in the league, there’s always reasons why that is. Danny was a big part of that, so it’s just par for the course.
"I really enjoy working with him and nothing has changed. My job as manager is to try and get the lads at their best. There is naturally always things going on in player’s lives that can maybe test that, but you’ve got to try to give them that support and we’ll continue to do that.”
McInnes is keen to add a striker to his injury-hit squad with skipper Kyle Vassell and fellow centre forward Innes Cameron ruled out. But he expects his hunt to go right to the final hours of the window. He said: “Yes, there’s still a lot of things that can change.
“They say it’s the January window, but as we’ve seen, unless you’re prepared to pay money like Hearts and Aberdeen, sometimes for clubs like ourselves we need to keep abreast of situations and hope that you can get lucky on good deals with things that aren’t going to be too much of a burden financially. It’s normally the last couple days of the window where things will maybe start to move for us.”
Kyle Maggenis returns to the squad for the trip to Gorgie - where Killie won 2-1 back in October. The Ayrshire outfit also dumped Hearts 1-0 at Rugby Park in December despite playing 85 minutes with 10 men. And their record at Tynecastle is impressive - having lost just one of their last 11 visits in all competitions.
McInnes said: “It’s funny how so many grounds it is that way and then there are others that are the opposite. You hear it all the time, everyone says it’s a good environment to play in. The players enjoy that.
“We go there knowing that Hearts are a team that should be doing better than what they are. They’ve found a bit of form recently and the manager has tried to implement what he wants from it. He’s in his first transfer window too, but nothing changes from our point of view – we go there with high motivation and expectations on ourselves to win a game of football.”
