Head Coach Simon Grayson sat down with the club as the players started to return to Poolfoot Farm after their summer breaks and he told us what it was like to be back.
The players all migrated back home after a long season last year and have now rested up, and are ready to tackle a tough pre-season schedule, which starts off with a training week before heading off to Radcliffe to start the fixtures off on Saturday 10 July.
Here’s what Simon had to say on the group coming back in:
On returning to training…
“Staff are back in now and the players are back in for the next period of time. It’s good to be back; the sun is shining here at Poolfoot so you would think that we were in the south of France, Portugal, or Spain, so I’m looking forward to seeing what is coming up in the next few months.
“I’m not sure the players will be relishing being back over the next few days when the sun is beating down and they are sweating and panting but that is part and parcel of pre-season. The only energy the staff will be using is in our thumbs for the stopwatches!
“You do what you need to do, the biggest thing that I’ve always tried to do, and every manager will be exactly the same is to get the players fit as possible and have as many players as possible available come the first game of the season – let’s hope we will be able to do that.”
On the condition of the players…
“Players now are very fit when they come back whereas, years ago, they were using pre-season to get fit and only started running two days before the start just to blow the cobwebs away.
“It’s changed since I was a player because, predominantly, you didn’t see the ball for about ten days, to two weeks, but on the first day back now, we will be having the balls out and will be doing our physical work in that respect. We are going to be doing some plain running as well so we all have to move with the times and be guided by the Head of Science and the medical teams at the club.
“Now, players have got programmes at every football club, and they will adhere to them as they don’t want to be left behind. All the players have come back in great shape. They don’t want to be the one that’s miles behind when they are doing some fitness or football work.”
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