O'Neil said: I knew it would end up this way fairly early and I'm delighted that it's all done. He's played an important part of us this season. Obviously, he had to be patient initially, he didn't have a pre-season and wasn't fully fit when he came, and Joao and Mario did exceptionally well in the early part. He had to wait, and we tried to find ways to move things around and get him in the team as well as those two.
I'm really pleased we've been able to add him for next season, he'll be a good signing for the club. He's a good age and has a real good hunger about him, the way he works every day, he's excellent for the culture for the place. It's a real good shift in the right direction culture wise for us, so pleased we've been able to get that one sorted.
His obvious strength is with the ball. He always gives us something with the ball with his range of passing. I think we can still make that better for him, if that's going to be his strength. Physically in certain moments he won't be as strong as Mario, Joao or Bouba, with covering the ground and winning duels, so if he's going to be a ball-playing midfielder, which he obviously is, we need to try and make that as good as it can be.
We need to get him to a place where he always impacts a game with his use of the ball. I know how hard he'll work at it, which is part of the reason we've signed him. We know, even though he knows it's a strength of his, we need to make it a super strength."