Wayne Rooney dismisses speculation linking him with Burnley job

Wayne Rooney has played down the latest speculation linking him to Burnley, with Mike Jackson continuing to manage the Clarets on a game-by-game basis.

Jackson stepped up from the under-23s following the sacking of Sean Dyche and has collected seven points from three games to guide the club out of the relegation zone.

Rooney was again strongly linked with Burnley on Thursday following Derby’s relegation to League One, but he denied anything was afoot, saying on derbytelegraph.co.uk: “I heard that this morning on talkSPORT, it is the first I heard of it.

“I think I have said a couple of times now it is a credit to myself and the staff and the job they’ve done that speculation is there, but I have a year left on my contract here. I want to try and bring better days back to this football club.

“Now, of course, that depends, as I have said over the last few weeks, on the takeover going through. If it doesn’t, then of course you might have to reassess that, but, if it goes through, I am here and ready to try and get this club back up into the Championship.”

Jackson held talks this week with chairman Alan Pace but is content to continue under the same arrangement.

He said: “We’ve had regular contact, we spoke about a couple of things, he’s given us his backing and we’re just going to go one game at a time. He’s happy with where we are and we think the best for everybody is the way we’ve been doing it so everyone’s on the same page.”

Jackson insisted he had not thought about his own managerial ambitions, despite his impressive start to life in the hotseat at Turf Moor.

“I’ve not had a chance to think about that,” he said. “It’s not in the front of my mind at this moment in time. The total focus has been can we get this team