GARY O’Neil’s approach to the transfer window will be the same as his coaching philosophy – “loads of hard work”. Cherries seem set for another busy January based on chairman Bill Foley’s comments, indicating a healthy budget for the upcoming transfer window. O’Neil has concurred with Foley’s belief that the squad will need strengthening, with the transfer window representing the head coach’s first foray into the market. Speaking on how he is prepared for making transfers for the first time,
Gary O’Neil shared:“The same as I deal with preparing for games. Do loads of hard work on it, make sure you’ve covered. I’m always really confident on things once I’ve done enough work on them. I remember speaking about the Wolves game and stood there a little bit nervous, and that was just because we’d only had a day and I didn’t really know what I was looking at. I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve always thought if I put enough work in, I arrive at a conclusion that I’m really confident and comfortable with, and that will be the same with the recruitment. Plus we have an incredible recruitment team who have real good track record in the players that we’ve managed to recruit at the club. The work that will be done will go through a process and we’ll try and make sure we get the right ones.”
Asked for the biggest differences between his interim spell and operating in the role on a permanent basis.
Gary O’Neil joked: “There’s probably slightly more off-pitch questions landing on my desk than they did before. Which I try to ignore, but they tend to come back and someone asks them again! So there’s a bit more to do. But the nature of the job, it feels the same to me. I treated it last time as if I was the head coach, so it won’t be too different for me.”
