Ferguson’s focus remains on Showgrounds job

Ferguson has already been touted as a possible successor to David Jeffrey, following the Linfield manager’s weekend announcement that he will step down from his position at the end of the season.

Ferguson was revered as a player at Windsor Park, while his coaching staff of Lee Doherty, Norman Kelly and Wes Lamont all played for their Blues during their careers.

The United boss signed an extension to his own contract last season which would keep him at the Showgrounds until the summer of 2016.

“My name has been linked (with Linfield) before and it will probably be again - I don’t have any control over that,” said Ferguson.

“We have our own plans here at Ballymena for what we want to do.

“We knew when we came in there was a lot of work to be done and it wouldn’t be done overnight and in the two years we’ve been here we think we’ve progressed.

“We wanted to start competing in semi-finals and finals and we’ve started to do that - we’ve reached the semi-finals of two cups this season and are still in the Irish Cup.

“We want to finish top six in the league as well but you can’t go from 10th or 11th to top four in the space of two years. It’s a building process, trying to bring over better players over the course of time.

“I’ve signed players like Jim Ervin, Stephen McBride and Johnny Taylor on two-year deals so it would be a bit hypocritical of me to walk out,” added Ferguson