Town boss Mick McCarthy he can do nothing about the ongoing speculation linking him with his old job of manager of the Republic of Ireland. The 54-year-old says he’s not doing anything to encourage it, although won’t rule himself in or out of the running until such time as the FAI officially ask him whether he is interested.
"I can’t help what’s going on,” he said. "If they ever ask me the question officially, I’ll tell them. They haven’t and until it happens, I’m not even going to talk about it, because I just get sick of it.
"We can all speculate and talk bullshit and listen to bullshit and read bullshit about it and nobody’s actually said anything to me. Nobody.
"Then of course you’ll ask me, ‘Well, what if?’. It doesn’t matter what if. I haven’t got answers to what ifs because I don’t deal with all that.”
He admits he’s been at times variously frustrated, flattered and annoyed by the speculation, but feels it reflects well on the job he did in his previous spell as Irish boss.
"It’s a marker of the job that I did in Ireland that they’re coming back and supposedly putting me up as favourite, that’s nice, isn’t it? That’s lovely,” he said.
"I remember 12 months ago I’ve had to take a club that’s bottom of the Championship, a good club that was bottom of the Championship.
"I’ve had to put my backside in the bacon slicer - we were bottom of the league with seven points. I did it and I’ve done a good job. We’re doing reasonable this year, doing alright.
"I can’t help speculation and, as I say, until they ask me or somebody asks me, and it might never happen, that’s as far as I’m going to say.”
He says he’s happy at Town and is preparing for today’s game with Burnley: "I love being here, I love my job. I really do love being here. I’m not asking for it, I’m not courting it, I’m not trying to do anything with it.
"I’m going to be there in that dugout breaking my bollocks to beat Burnley for me and everybody else that’s associated with the club.”
He added: "It might be that I’d just like to be asked and I say yes, or I might like to be asked and say no. But I haven’t been asked.”