STEVE Evans remains hopeful he will be handed the opportunity to continue as Leeds United head coach beyond this season.

The Scot’s contract runs until June but he has stated repeatedly that a verbal agreement was in place with owner Massimo Cellino for him to stay on provided he secured the club’s Championship status.

Evans denied that the uncertainty could hamper his plans for recruitment for next season but accepted that clarity was needed.

The Elland Road boss, whose side travel to league leaders Burnley tomorrow, said: “There’s a lot of planning going on behind the scenes.

“Obviously when it comes to player recruitment, if I wasn’t to be here then people might have a different opinion on that.

“I wouldn’t wish for someone else to plan my recruitment. That’s not what you want.

“But there’s a lot of hard work going on for pre-season, dates, programmes, opposition and everything that goes around that. The work doesn’t stop.

“The only thing there has to be is a decision (on his job) by the president.

“I know how I’d like that to go but sometimes in life you get things you like and things you don’t.

“For me to deliver what I set out to achieve, we have to win some games and win some points. When that happens we can all take abreast of the situation. They’ll set the timescales and you work with in them.”

Leeds are 19 points behind the division’s play-off zone with seven games remaining.

Evans said: “We do need to bring in quality and that will arrive. I hope I’ll be responsible for doing that.

“But it’s a little bit early for players to be deciding where they’re going to be and what they’re going to do. There’s much still to be played for. We have to just remained focused on the football.

“If we win on Saturday I’ll celebrate with a nice glass of wine. I’m overdue one.

“The last one was in December. We’ve only really got the focus of going to play Burnley.”