McInnes revealed he has already fielded job enquiries since leaving his Pittodrie role after eight years in the Granite City.

And he refused to rule out taking another crack at management south of the border following his 15-month stint at Ashton Gate, which ended with him being sacked in January 2013.

"I'm open to anything," said McInnes, who will be on punditry duty for Premier Sports this weekend as they screen coverage of two Scottish Cup quarter-finals. "At the minute I'm just looking forward to the break. I'm enjoying doing some TV work and watching games from a different perspective.

"I'm enjoying my down time and getting ready for my next challenge.

"I'm looking forward to that. Professionally I think it's good for me after eight years to have that.

"It felt for me the right time to leave Aberdeen, so I'll look forward to that next challenge, wherever it may be.

"I just want to work for a good club with good people within that club and see where we go.

"I've been managing since I was 36 and other than six or seven weeks in between Bristol City and Aberdeen I've not really had an opportunity to be out of the game.

"When you are out, you're preparing for your next job and part of that preparation is being physically right and mentally right and ready to go, because being a manager is all-consuming.

"I had one opportunity a few weeks ago about something.

"But I think it's important to have a rest with some time to relax with the family. I'll then be more than ready when the next challenge comes along."

McInnes remains proud of his Dons record having led the club to League Cup glory in 2014.

But one trophy was not enough to satisfy the demands of the Red Army and McInnes parted company with the club after his side embarked on a frustrating run that saw them net just once in nine games.

Yet he feels it might have been different had his time in charge of Aberdeen not coincided with the Brendan Rodgers era of domination at Celtic Park.

"I had a fantastic time at Aberdeen but it was time to move on," he explained.

"It's well-documented how strong Brendan's Celtic team were.

"They were so well managed with a lot of talent on the pitch. They were always a difficult opponent to overcome.

"For the 15 cup competitions I was involved in domestically, we got to 11 semi-finals and five finals. We managed one trophy and I'm disappointed we never added to that.

"But more often than not we came up against that Celtic team that were so strong.

"When I look back, my biggest regret is that we never added to that League Cup that we won.

"When we took over, we wanted to make Aberdeen relevant again as they hadn't been for a long time.

"The fact we were visiting Hampden more than any club outwith Celtic is indicative of how well the club was run, how strong the squad was and how well the staff worked together."

:: McInnes was promoting exclusively live Premier Sports coverage of Hibernian v Motherwell this Saturday from 4.30pm and Rangers v St Johnstone this Sunday from 6pm. Premier Sports is available on Sky, Virgin TV and the Premier Player.