Finances have been depleted by the demise of their shirt sponsor XL and with money scarce, the board expects Zola to draw the best from the current squad with the Italian is only too happy to oblige.

"I like working with this team. When I first came here I was told that I was going to work with this team and I tried to make things better," he said.

"I am not thinking about anything else. Anything else that comes will be an extra bonus. My task here is to work with the players and improve them.

"It will be easier to spend £20million on that player or £30million on that player but improving players is what I enjoy about the job.

"I'm not concerned about the lack of money. I think we can do well with this team."