New Town boss Gary O’Neil says he has already spent some time with CEO and chairman Mark Ashton discussing where the squad might need additions ahead of the Blues’ return to the Premier League and confirmed that funds will be made available.

O’Neil, 43, was confirmed as the successor to Kieran McKenna at a press conference at Portman Road yesterday afternoon, becoming only the 20th manager in the club’s 90-year professional history.

Speaking on Friday, Ashton said the club had a number of deals already well progressed, awaiting the new boss’s input once he had been appointed.

“Still early, of course, we’ve been making sure that this gets finalised first and everything goes smoothly,” O’Neil said when he was asked whether there had been discussions on that front.

“But we have spent a few hours together going through some bits already about the current group and about what we think we can help them with, and then what we can supplement from outside.

“It’ll be a lot of work to be done. It’s September 1st when the window closes, so between now and then we’ll be doing our very best to give the club the best chance.

“I’ll have my own thoughts on what we need, the recruitment team look like they’re doing a fantastic job and have some good stuff already lined up, so let’s see what we can do.”

Promotion to the Premier League is worth at least £240 million to the club and O’Neil confirmed he will have some of that money to spend.

“There will be funds, of course, as you would expect,” he added. “You probably know from last time that they got promoted that there were funds available and that they had a real good go in the transfer market at supporting the manager.

“I don’t think it will be too different this time. Everybody knows that when you’re promoted from the Championship, if you want to have a real good go at staying up, there needs to be some investment and you need to invest in the squad, it’s a no-brainer, really. Everybody knows that.

“You add to that how committed the ownership group is here and how committed Mark is to making sure that we do it properly.

“So yes, we’ll be able to do some stuff in this window. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be just spending money willy-nilly and wasting it. Like the process of recruiting me, it will be as deep and in-depth with every single player we sign.

“They have to fit what we need tactically, they have to fit the culture, they have to fit the football club.

“But I haven’t even met the current playing group yet and they deserve an awful lot of respect for what they’ve done at this place and they’re going to get a good go at helping us stay in this division as well.

“It’s not going to be like, ‘OK, there’s a new manager that’s come in, let’s rip everything up and sign a load of new players’. It’s going to be, ‘can we put all of this together? Can we use what we have? Can we make sure we keep the core and the culture intact while we add some bits that give us the best opportunity?’.

“We’ll try and use all the expertise in the building, the recruitment team, myself, Mark, all the other guys that are involved in it, to try and put something together that gives us a real good go.”

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