KINGSLEY JAMES insists that he and John Askey are “fully focused” on their jobs at York City amid speculation linking the manager to the vacant position at Rochdale.

Askey is the current odds-on favourite with the bookmakers to succeed Robbie Stockdale at Rochdale, after he parted ways with the SkyBet League Two club last week.

The York boss is currently the 4/7 favourite with BetVictor, a slightly wider price than the 1/2 offered by the same bookmaker on Tuesday. He led City to promotion through the Vanarama National League North play-offs last season after the November sacking of Steve Watson.

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re here, we’ve enjoyed our time here and until we’re told otherwise, we’ll keep doing our jobs,” said first-team coach James.

“I know he (Askey) was odds-on favourite for the Notts County job (in June) and we ended up being here (still). It doesn’t mean anything.

“We’ve just got to focus on our next game and that’s it.”

In many ways, the noise around Askey’s future reflects the esteem in which he and James are held in at present.

The pair led City to an unlikely return to the National League back in May after beating Boston United 2-0 in the play-off final at the LNER Community Stadium.

The Minstermen had sat 15th in the table just months earlier and appeared levels adrift of promotion.

“I think John is highly thought of in football and has been for a while,” added James. “It doesn’t surprise me that the manager is linked with other jobs.

“We’re fully focused on our jobs here and the job in hand. We can’t allow anything like that to distract and take our focus off the game (on Saturday at Maidenhead United).

“We’ve got to be fully focused on picking up as many points as we can over the weekend.

“We’re doing our jobs as we normally would. It’s as simple as that for us.”