New Blues boss Gary O’Neil believes the squad he is inheriting is one he’s going to love, having been impressed with their commitment and the manner in which they’ve handled themselves.
O’Neil, who took charge at Portman Road yesterday on a three-year deal, was yet to speak to any of the players by the time he spoke to the media at yesterday afternoon’s press conference.
“I haven’t actually,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting them because, from what I see, I see a group that I think I’m going to love.
“I think they are fully committed to to this place, fully committed to the cause, whether it be trying to stay up or trying to bounce back up.
“Every time I’ve seen them, every time I’ve watched them, I think they’ve handled themselves very, very well. They look like a really committed group and I think they get the backing of the fans because of that.
“And if you watch my teams, they’ve always been very, very similar to that. They always give everything. We try and be difficult to beat, we try and make it difficult for the opposition.
“Looking forward to meeting them, looking forward to putting them through pre-season because that’s going to be important – we need to learn how we do things, we need to get them physically right, need to keep pushing the culture and what we expect of everybody.
“It’s always a great day, that. When you get to meet the group and you can start to pick apart what you need from this guy and that guy and how you try and piece it all together, so excited to meet them.”
Asked what he looks for when he first meets a squad, he added: “We’ll obviously do some tactical stuff and we’ll try and figure out which ones have a good understanding of what we’re trying to do.
“But then we’ll start to put some tests in place. I want to see early who can suffer with us, who’s going to dig in, who doesn’t drop their level when it’s going well.
“Loads of stuff around technical, but also some cultural stuff to see where everybody’s at, trying to get to know everyone.
“There will be a lot of one-to-one meetings, trying to get to know the players, especially some of the key leaders in the group, obviously [skipper] Dara [O’Shea] has been fantastic for the club so far, a big leader in the changing room.
“Will spend some time with some of those characters to try and understand what they need.
“But looking forward to all of it. There’s so much that goes into it, which is why it’s such and enjoyable job.”
O’Neil says he’s already spent time watching footage of his new squad, not just from last season.
“Yes, I watched a bit, I’ve actually watched some of the Premier League games as well from the season before trying to get up to speed with as much as I can,” he said.
“It’s not the same as being in with them and being in the dressing room and being on the grass with them, but I’ve tried to take as much from it as I can.
“Obviously they’ve had another successful season in the Championship, did very, very well, it’s not easy to come back after the disappointment of being relegated to regain the mentality to bounce straight back again, it takes some work.
“A very good job done last year, but the challenge now does go up a few notches. This is going to be a real competitive Premier League season. I think even since I left, it seems like the level’s gone up, so we need to be ready for that.
“But I have a decent understanding. [Former manager] Kieran [McKenna] as well, I’ve watched his teams quite a bit, watched his progression as a coach, similar age, similar timing to me when he got in, so I’m up on a lot of those coaches, successful ones that are doing well – always keep your eye across what’s going on. I know quite a bit about the team and how it plays. I feel like I’m in a good spot to hit the ground running.
“Some good games in pre-season as well for me to get my eyes on the lads and see really what we need and what we need to add before we get the real start.”
He says he and McKenna have talked a lot over the years, but he has no plans to sound him out about the squad.
“I’ve actually spoken to Kieran quite a bit over the last few years, but I think I have a good understanding of where I want this group to be,” he continued.
“So, no, I think there will be enough people around that have been on the journey long enough that I can lean on and try and take bits from.
“But we need to take this on now. We need to take it on from where it’s been. It’s been an incredible journey but we haven’t had a Premier League season that has ended in success yet for a very long time, and that needs to be the aim now, that needs to be the sole focus.
“I’m going to work very hard to move us towards that and we’ll be working now every single day from this moment to make sure that we get enough points to finish outside the relegation zone and then let’s see if we can push to something else.”
One man O’Neil does already know at Portman Road is the man who appointed him, chairman and CEO Mark Ashton, who was in charge at Bristol City during the former midfielder’s time as a player with the Robins.
O’Neil says Ashton ran a rigorous recruitment regime from which he emerged as the winning candidate.
“A thorough process, as you would expect,” he added. “Trying to secure Premier League jobs is very, very competitive, so as you would expect from Mark and the team, they went through a very thorough process to make sure that I was the right candidate.
“I know Mark from Bristol City but we haven’t spoken loads between then and now, but as soon as I felt that this opportunity would be available, it was something that I was keen to pursue and Mark has been great on that, he’s supported me really well in the last few days and weeks to make sure that it all went smoothly.
“A few meetings, a couple of interviews making sure that we were aligned on what we saw. And I think we are, I think we are very, very similar people in what we expect.
“I’m looking forward to working with Mark because I know how supportive he can be. Even from the outside watching how he worked with Kieran and how close they looked and how well things went under them. I’m keen to try and improve on that, take it a step further.
“It was a good process, glad we got to this point in it, of course, but I’m now looking forward to what’s next.”
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