Town CEO Mark Ashton says tying manager Kieran McKenna down to a new long-term deal gives the Blues the stability and the platform to move forward.
McKenna, 37, put pen to paper on a new contract which runs to the summer of 2027 earlier today.
"Delighted to get it across the line,” Ashton said in an interview with the club's social media. "It’s something that we’ve been working on now probably for the last three or four weeks.
"It shows a further commitment from Kieran to the football club and gives us that sense of stability to move forward into the Championship.
"From a board perspective, we talked about this whilst the season was ongoing but we felt we’d let the season finish and whatever way in which the season had finished, it was something that we wanted to do. Kieran had got two years left on his his current contract.
"But to give us that stability and that platform to move forward, we thought it was important that he was rewarded, firstly for the work that he’d done, but important also that we had a longer runway to put the plans in place and continue the journey.
"The conversations really started with Kieran and myself directly after the season, a couple of days after the season had finished, and I’m delighted to get it across the line today.”
Ashton says all thoughts are now on the campaign ahead in the Championship with the players set to return to Playford Road on Monday 26th July and new recruits set to join in the weeks to come.
"We’ve celebrated last season, that was great, we’ll never forget it, but we have to move quickly on to next season because it will hit us like a thunderbolt, we have to be ready, we have to be prepared,” he continued.
"We’ve tidied up, we’ve released some players, we’ve tied down players on new contracts, we’ve now probably tied down the most important person on a new long-term contract and over the next two, three, four weeks you’ll start to see players come into the football club in a very coordinated and organised manner. I think we’re in a strong shape, but we have to be focus now on moving forward.”