The 50-year-old, who was unsuccessfully targeted by Sunderland and the Rangers while in the northeast, received several approaches during his nine-month absence.

But he admitted the chance to take over at Rugby Park was too good to ignore and vowed to do whatever he could to win back the Premiership promotion in the second half of the season.

“There were some opportunities,” said McInnes. “I was offered a few things in England and one thing abroad, nothing that really caught my eye.

“There were a couple of in England that I applied for and was hoping to get, but I fell a bit short. There were also a lot of things that I didn’t apply for that I didn’t really see as the right opportunity. Sometimes you don’t know until you know.

“It happened, it wasn’t something I thought about but once I met the people involved here it felt good and I felt I could come here and do something. .

“You don’t want to be away from the game for too long. I was delighted to take on the challenge Kilmarnock offered me.

McInnes only committed his future to Kilmarnock until the end of the 2022/23 season – but he believes there is nothing unusual about the length of his deal with the Rugby Park club.

“This is what we agreed to after the negotiations,” he said. “Look, you get managers signing for four and five years and everything in between. But in the end, the end of these things is the same in either case.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one year or five years, termination and compensation is normally one year anyway.

“So I think people can get too caught up in the length of the contract because it doesn’t really mean anything – as a lot of managers can attest. For me, I feel like I have the opportunity to do climb Kilmarnock during this period.

McInnes has confirmed that Tony Docherty and Paul Sheerin, who worked alongside him at Aberdeen, are due to join Kilmarnock as assistant manager and first team coach.