Wigan Athletic boss responds to Swansea City job speculation

The 40-year-old had been backed into almost even money with some bookmakers to succeed Michael Duff, who parted company with the Swans at the beginning of the month.

However, Maloney says any suggestion he is about to jump ship is well wide of the mark.

"There's nothing whatsoever in that," said the Latics chief. "It was only this morning when someone here mentioned it to me that I even became aware.

"But I'm very happy here...and I just hope the chairman and the owner are happy with me!

"It's just one of these things that happens in football. You get it with players and you get it with managers, but there's nothing to say on it really.

"I really hope I'm here for a long period of time."

Despite having experienced so much - good and bad, on and off the field - during his short time in charge at the DW, Maloney feels he is only at the very start of his journey.

"Exactly," he said, "and it feels like it's been an incredible 10 or 11 months already, it really has.

"But I feel we're at the very beginning of trying to build the club back up to a certain level.

"The biggest thing this year to start with is to try to be stable. I know our supporters are used to being favourites in this league, and I still sense that when we play, that they want us to win every game.

"But we're almost at the very beginning of rebuilding to give ourselves a chance of fighting for the top six, and then the top two.

"This step is the first step of that...and we are really having to rebuild across all departments. We have one person in the recruitment department...we have no scouts...it's down to one person to handle the recruitment, which is almost unheard of at a football club.

"Look, the owner and the chairman have worked incredibly hard, and it feels like it's constant, it's constant. But I'm enjoying it so far, and I enjoy it even more when we're winning games."

Maloney also played a straight bat when asked whether he was flattered at being linked with posts in higher divisions.

"No, not really," he added. "I would never take too much notice of that, good or bad.

"If we don't win games...when we didn't win in four matches...I'm sure there was less positive chat about me. But I don't take it too much either way.

"As long as the owner and the chairman are happy with the work I'm doing, and the supporters as well...I hope they've been reasonably happy with how it's going so far.

"I hope everyone can see we're trying to bring back a certain DNA of the club.

"And then in subsequent seasons, we can really push to be one of the best teams in this league."