Chris LakeyPaul Lambert's flurry of early summer activity in the transfer market has taken City fans by surprise - but it could be a case of "hold on to your seats" as it's going to get even quicker next time.Chris Lakey

Paul Lambert's flurry of early summer activity in the transfer market has taken City fans by surprise - but it could be a case of "hold on to your seats" as it's going to get even quicker next time.

Lambert has signed four new players since the season ended on May 8 - unheard of at City this decade - but his chief executive says City will be even quicker off the mark in future.

"Personally I would rather do business earlier than this, and that's our intention over future transfer windows, to do business even earlier," said David McNally, below.

"We weren't able to for a number of reasons, not least of which was the restructuring, bringing in the new chief scout, doesn't allow me the preferable amount of planning time that we will now have."

Ewan Chester is now in situ, heading up the scouting operation, taking a weight off the minds of Lambert and his team and implementing some future planning.

"Ewan is already out there now planning the next two transfer windows," said McNally. "We want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of where we are and that's what it's about, really."

McNally has been at the City helm for almost a year - and his imprint on the affairs of a club that he joined at its lowest ebb in half a century is evident.

"I am just really pleased that we have made the progress that we intended to on the pitch, that's all that matters really," he said.

"It's about football success."

The changes behind the scenes have been as dramatic as those in front, although there is still more work to do to complete Lambert's back-up staff, with a vacancy for a coach and no confirmation that Laurence Batty will return as goalkeeping coach.

"We have some stability now," said McNally. "I think in 12 months almost all of our backroom team will have changed, which is remarkable when you consider how many there is in a backroom staff now. We could do with some stability in that area now and hopefully we will have that - and behind the scenes everybody is just pulling in the same direction, which I can honestly say throughout the last year has been the case."

The current window runs until August 31, with clubs then having to wait until January to do business.