CHERRIES will be ‘relentless’ in their preparations for their return to action on Saturday – with Gary O’Neil sharing that outside noise ‘won’t affect’ the dressing room.

Interim boss O’Neil is set to take charge for a fourth time at the weekend when Brentford visit the Vitality Stadium (kick-off 3pm).

Speculation surrounds the Dorset club, with a rumoured takeover reported to be nearing completion, whilst the hunt for a new head coach continues.

When asked if he could issue any update on the upstairs situation at Cherries, O’Neil responded: “No.

“I mean, Richard Hughes and Neill Blake I'm in regular contact with, and they keep me up to date on what I need to know and obviously happy with that and where everything is.

“But in terms of updates, nothing at all from me.

“I'm not going to share any private internal conversations that we have.

“I think just the important thing is that I'm being kept up to date.

“I know exactly where things are and I'm happy with my situation, which is still being tasked to take the team until further notice, which I'm delighted to do.”
Unbeaten in his three games so far, O’Neil’s sole focus at the moment is on preparation for Thomas Frank’s Bees, with the former Portsmouth man stressing that his side would not be impacted by “whatever is going on in the background”.

He added: “I don't think the takeover or whatever is going on in the background has any impact on myself or the playing squad or how we prepare or how we feel.

“I think it's made no difference to how I felt towards this game.

“The other games, it's just we're getting ready for another game. The boys are extremely professional, ready to go.

“Anything outside of our dressing room definitely won't affect us either way.

“We're just going to be relentless in how we prepare.”