Remember the preseason in Switzerland last year. Looked like they had a great time but they came back injured and unfit. Nicola was said to be furious about the players condition. We struggled to recover, which probably cost us the title. I'm pretty sure that that won't happen under Nigel and his assistants. I know the players have to have their hols first, but where would you send them for preseason training and which teams would you like to se us play. Presumably some of this has been sorted out already.
Should be better fitness wise as Nigel was a physio. Id love to see us play a high european team like ajax or porto but realistically i can see us playing foreign teams with a simular stature to ours such as Nantes.
Now that Pahars is the manager, it would be good to get Skonta Riga over for a pre-season friendly. Not sure when the season runs over in Latvia, though.
i reckon we should stay at st mary's, and cortese should use his influence to get barca real madrid and inter down here. you may dismiss that idea, but i remember when bayern munich came down for a friendly.
The shame about the Swiss trip is I think Nicola and Markus wanted to show off their team and we didn't do well for them. You'd have thought training at altitude would have got us fitter. We can trust the present coaching regime to get it right. I know this season hasn't finished but it would be good to get a fast start in the Championship.
Whatever happens lets hope they behave in a better way than they did in Switzerland. Jumping off a bridge into a canal/river in the middle of town is not the way professional footballers should behave and it reflected badly on our club and could have led to a serious injury. Pardew was not a strong enough manager with them and he should have put a stop to it straight away. What I will say is that Nigel better knows how to prepare players for the season than our last manager so I am hoping we get off to a flying start in the Championship.
I agree with your 2nd paragraph but not the 1st one. All the players are allowed a bit of banter and time off to relax and joke around. That's what brings out the team spirit. Can't have them all locked up in the hotels except for when they're training or playing a match can we.
