Wes Burns says he’s looking forward to playing under his one-time Bristol City teammate Gary O’Neil having signed a new one-year deal with the Blues.

O’Neil, who was appointed Town boss late last month, joined the Robins in the summer of 2016 - during Blues CEO and chairman Mark Ashton’s time in charge at Ashton Gate - Burns having been with the West Country side since arriving as an 18-year-old in 2012 following his release by hometown club Cardiff City.

However, while featuring in pre-season friendlies, the two never played alongside one another in a competitive game, Burns spending the first half of 2016/17 on loan at Aberdeen, before moving to Fleetwood on a permanent basis in the January.

“I’ve known the boss for a long time,” Burns told TownTV. “In my younger days at Bristol City he was coming towards the end of his career and we crossed paths there playing-wise.

“So I’ve known of him for a long time and watched him from afar as a manager. The conversations that I had with him were obviously positive ones.

“He wants to have a really positive impact on the team and play the way he wants to play and the ultimate aim is to stay up this year in the Premier League, and he’s fully confident that we can do that. I’m looking forward to working with him.”

Reflecting on extending his stay at Town into a sixth season, the first signing of the Gamechanger 20 era added: “Delighted to get it done. There was a lot of talk in the summer in terms of what was going to be happening in terms of my career and what was going to go on at the football club.

“But, as I said at the end of the season, I’d always be delighted to stay and I’m buzzing to get the deal done.”

Burns was given a huge ovation as he left the pitch when he was subbed during the 3-0 victory over QPR which sealed promotion back to the Premier League in May.

The 31-year-old said at the time that his future was very much up in the air at that time and he didn’t know whether that would be his last appearance at Portman Road.

“The appreciation that I have for everyone here in the town and everyone that comes out and supports us on a Saturday is obviously way above anything that I’ve experienced in my career before,” he said.

“I think everyone could probably understand that at that point I didn’t know if it was going to be the last hurrah. It was my way of saying goodbye, or what I thought was going to be a goodbye, so obviously getting that ovation it means a lot.”

Having ruptured his ACL at Liverpool in January 2025 during the previous Premier League season, the Wales international believes he has unfinished business.

“I’ve alluded to it a lot in previous interviews, talking about the Premier League season when I got injured,” he continued.

“I was very unfortunate to pick up the injury I did during that season and having spoken to my family, there’s almost an itch that needs scratching there.

“I feel like I missed out on a lot of experiences. I know the first time around it didn’t end the way we wanted it to and I feel like this time the club is more equipped to give a better account of itself. I’m really looking forward to it and hopefully a few itches get scratched.”

Burns and his teammates return to Playford Road for the start of pre-season training on Monday and in a few weeks’ time will move into the new training ground building which has been under construction for more than a year.

“Really looking forward to it,” he added. “It’s been overshadowing us on the training pitches over the last 12 months or so, watching it go from dust to what it is, what it looks like now and we’ll be moving in there very shortly.

“We’re looking forward to it. From what we’ve heard and what we’ve seen, it’s state of the art, it’s going to have everything that we’ll need to improve us as players and get every possible per cent out of our bodies on a matchday.

“The people that have designed it have left no stone unturned in terms of performance, so really looking forward to getting in there.”

Photo: ITFC/Matchday Images