Derek McInnes has insisted he has taken no notice of speculation linking him with the vacant Heart of Midlothian post.

The Kilmarnock boss refused to be drawn on whether he would be a contender for the position as he insisted his full focus is on his job at Rugby Park.

Asked whether it was a compliment to be linked with the Hearts managerial job following Steven Naismith's dismissal on Sunday, he said: “Not really, no. I actually don't take any notice of it. My job and focus is here.

“I'm at an age now where, when you get linked with things or your job's under pressure, people talking about it, I actually don't really see much merit in dwelling on it.

“My job is fully on Kilmarnock and it's just about making sure that we are the team I want us to be, being relevant again as we were last season, people giving us plenty of plaudits and mixing it and landing a few blows on bigger teams with bigger budgets.

“I believe we can be that team again. I actually think we've got the potential to be better than last year and that excites me and hopefully, we can start by getting a winning performance again on Saturday.”

Both Steven Naismith and Craig Levein - at St Johnstone - have been relieved of their duties so far this season in the Scottish Premiership.

McInnes expects both managers will feel hard done to over their sacking as he cited successes last season while branding the dismissals as “particularly harsh”.

"There's two managers, one towards the end of his career, and I spoke with Craig and I spoke with Naisy, and one starting out his career,” said McInnes. “And both rightly got lots of praise for the work they've done last season. Now that can quickly get forgotten about by supporters and I get that.

"I think in Craig's situation, a new owner normally means new manager. That's normally the case, it's just normally a matter of time. A lot of new owners want to bring their own man in and and I think Craig is can feel hard done by it to be honest.

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“I thought he took over a difficult situation and managed to safeguard their Premiership status. By his own admission. I think he's made some good signings. I think St. Johnstone will be better than they were last year but he's not got an opportunity to see if that is the case.

“And in Naisy's case, again another strong performance last season. from Hearts.

“You know how quickly it can turn, particularly when the supporters become unhappy, but I just thought maybe even at boardroom level, he might get a wee bit more grace and understanding and a benefit of the good season they had last season.

"So for me it's really always disappointing to see managers lose their jobs and I think in those two cases, this is particularly harsh.”

“Whether Craig wants to go back in again, I'm not sure whether he does, but certainly in Naisy's instance, I think he should, as I said to him, just take the benefit from managing a club like Hearts and be ready for your next job in time.

“He's obviously shown a level of performance that allowed Hearts to such a strong performance last season and he'll go again. He's young enough to do that.”