It may well be a stretch to say Derek McInnes will be looking on with an almost paternal pride as he watches James Maddison strut his stuff in an England shirt at the World Cup.
But there is certainly a sense of satisfaction at seeing the 19-year-old boy who turned up under his watch at Aberdeen in 2016 realise all the potential McInnes knew he possessed from the minute he walked through the door at Pittodrie. The now-Kilmarnock manager still rues the fact that he only had the mercurial midfielder under his wing for a few short months, Maddison having done so well in his loan spell that parent club Norwich hauled him back to East Anglia in the January transfer window.
But the Leicester City star’s quality in those few months in the Granite City, underlined by a stunning last minute free kick winner over Rangers at Pittodrie in September of that year, is embedded in McInnes’ memory bank and six years on, the pair are still in contact.
