Steve McClaren has described Aston Villa as ‘a sleeping giant’ but was quick to distance himself from their vacant manager’s job.
The Derby boss says he is completely focused on leading the Rams back into the Premier League and is not interested in replacing Paul Lambert who was sacked on Wednesday evening.
The former England manager said: “I have a job to do here and I’m solely focusing on trying to get Derby into the Premier League.
“We’ve got a very, very good chance and everything else is speculation. We’ve got 16 games to go and have a chance of achieving what we want to achieve and I’m not going to walk away from it.”
As for Villa, who are the Premier League’s lowest scorers this season and currently in the relegation zone, McClaren added: “No doubt who goes in, it is a very good job, a big job and a sleeping giant.
“And someone is going to be very lucky to get that.”
McClaren is the fourth favourite with bookmakers to become the next Villa manager, behind Tim Sherwood, Glenn Hoddle and Michael Laudrup.