Blues boss rules out backroom changes

And he has pledged that Guy Whittingham and Stuart Gray will not be leaving.

The new Blues boss will not be ripping up his backroom staff following his arrival.

He has already been linked with a move to bring West Brom coach and ex-Pompey keeper Dean Kiely with him.

That has been refuted by Appleton.

And he has vowed to keep the existing set-up intact, meaning welcome stays for Gray and Whittingham after their fine efforts as joint-caretaker bosses.

Appleton said: ‘Further down the line, I don’t know, but at the minute there isn’t a need for an assistant.

‘We have three coaches in terms of me, Stuart and Guy.

‘That should be sufficient to make sure we look after the players.

‘Obviously Dean (Kiely) is going to get linked because I have been working with him for the past four years at West Brom and we have had a lot of success during that time.

‘He has done a fantastic job there and I am sure Roy (Hodgson) would be very angry and very cheesed off with me if I start trying to take members of staff.

‘So I won’t be!

‘As for the other staff here, right from day one of being interviewed, it was made very clear to me the club have got a good backroom staff, medical staff, sports science staff and analysis staff.

‘They didn’t want to change things because they felt they had the right people in place.

‘I was well aware of that in the interview. I am prepared to work with them and, hopefully, they are prepared to work with me.’