Leeds' hopes of prising number one target Paul Hart away from the City Ground suffered a blow tonight when the Nottingham Forest manager declared his commitment to his current club.
Hart, a former Leeds defender and youth team coach, is widely being touted as the man the Elland Road board hope can restore former glories.
Eddie Gray, ironically a Leeds youth team coach at the same time as Hart, has taken over as caretaker-manager following the departure of Peter Reid on Monday.
It is believed Leeds officials have put Hart top of their wanted list to take over on a permanent basis.
However, Hart has stressed he has a job to do at Forest and has not even considered looking at what is happening outside of the City Ground.
"The speculation is none of my doing and I honestly don't feel the need to be forever reacting to situations beyond my control," he said.
"It may be seen by some people as flattering to be linked with other clubs but it can also have a nuisance element to it.
"All I can say is that I have never been more committed to my job with Nottingham Forest and all that concerns me is our game against Wigan a week on Saturday."
Hart is trying to improve Forest's fortunes after some indifferent results saw them slip to mid-table and he insisted all his focus was on the next game, at fourth-placed Wigan.
"At the moment we have many players away on international duty so it's not easy to prepare but hopefully all our players will report back next week without injury and we can get down to concentrate fully on the Wigan game," he told the club's website.