Micky Mellon says he will be careful with Oldham Athletic's coffers.

The Scot has inherited a squad that received plenty of investment during the summer, with the signings of League One players James Norwood and Charlie Raglan among eight arrivals.

And while he says there remains room in the budget to make his own additions, with young goalkeeper Dan Langley recently added to the ranks, Mellon will look to prioritise getting the best out of his current crop.

"For the level we're working at we have a healthy budget, but we want to look at the group we have at the minute. Is it good enough to take us forward?" said the Latics boss.

"We'll look at the games and performances and as we go along if opportunities come for people to come to Oldham with the right mentality then we would try to bring that. It's ongoing and if we have the opportunity to bring in players who we think we can make the club better we'll go and do that.

"But we have to respect there's been a lot of money spent on this squad, we can't flippantly move people on. We've been brought here to try to work with this group and get them to a level that improves results.

"It's going to take time because these are the players we have with us at the minute. We'll keep working hard, we believe in our abilities to give these players the best chance possible of giving their best for Oldham. We'll try to not waste a penny of Frank Rothwell's money. Over time football will tell you are they good enough or are they not? But at the minute we will work hard with this group to move them forward."

And Mellon, who previously worked with Norwood at Tranmere in winning back-to-back promotions, insists players will be judged on merit.

"We have a good group of guys, a good group of players who are attacking everything that we want to do. But we won't show emotion, we won't keep players because we like them, it's all about Oldham and the football club.

"One thing I can back up is what I've done before, I know what a good team looks like, how it lives and behaves, so I'm building towards that.

"We will get the qualities that we need to build a good team here. It's not even a what if, we will build a team that wins games of football and gets us to the place we want to get to."