McInnes 'fully focused' on Kilmarnock amid Hearts link

Steven Naismith shaking hands with Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes in April

Derek McInnes takes no pleasure from being linked with the Hearts vacancy and insists he is "fully" committed to Kilmarnock.

Steven Naismith was sacked as Hearts head coach on Sunday after eight successive losses in all competitions.

McInnes, 53, led Killie to fourth in the Scottish Premiership last term and they featured in this season's European qualifiers.

When asked if being linked with Hearts was a compliment, 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 fully is on Kilmarnock."

He added: "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 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 on Saturday [against Dundee United]."

McInnes was regularly linked with other jobs during his eight years in charge of Aberdeen, notably Rangers and Sunderland, and has been at Kilmarnock since January 2022.

He has spoken to both Naismith, 38, and recently dismissed St Johnstone manager Craig Levein, 59, and believes the latter can feel "hard done by" while Naismith "might have got a wee bit more grace". McInnes feels both departures were "particularly harsh".

He shared the advice he had given Naismith: "Just take the good from having the benefit of managing a club like Hearts and be ready for your next job in time because he's obviously shown a level of performance that allowed Hearts to have such a strong performance last season and he'll go again, he's young enough to do that."