GARY O’Neil believes Cherries’ January transfer business will “move the club forward” in the “short term” and “long term”.

Cherries brought in six new faces in a bid to bolster their squad ahead of the second half of the Premier League campaign.

Left-back Matias Vina and attacking midfielder Hamed Traore arrived from Serie A, whilst Cherries recruited Dango Ouattara from the other club in Black Knight’s portfolio, FC Lorient.

Illia Zabarnyi joins from Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine, whilst Darren Randolph and Antoine Semenyo left West Ham and Bristol City respectively.

Asked about the transfer window, O’Neil commented: “Yeah, it was busy.

“Obviously, when you're on the inside of it, you have a knowledge of what's going on and what's in place, so probably not as dramatic from my point of view.

“Obviously, we had a plan that we set out to achieve in January, and everyone did a good job.

“We recruited areas that we were looking to recruit in, added some quality to the group. So, yeah, it was a good month for us.”

I think if you look at the whole window, we were really clear on what we were trying to do.

!So if you start with a goalkeeper for instance, we needed three senior goalkeepers in the squad.

“We were slightly short before, and I think back to when Travs felt his calf in the cup game at Newcastle and we’ve got Cameron Plain on the bench.

“A great young goalkeeper, but at that point, having to put Cameron Plain on the pitch in a Premier League or a cup match, that's how short we were at times. So that needed rectifying.

“We've got three senior goalkeepers and then from that the rest of the business you can see with the profile of the players, the age, the transfer fees, there's a real plan in place to move the club forward, not only short term but long term as well.”