To quote both Geoffrey Chaucer and Nelly Furtado: All good things come to an end. 

After seven full days in this beautiful part of the world, the time has come to pack our bags and return to dear old Blighty.

As you would have gathered from my previous blogs, this pre-season camp has ticked every box imaginable both from a football perspective and logistically.

From a football viewpoint, while I’m not necessarily au fait with the expected levels that the players should be attaining at this stage, it was obvious to me that every player gave their all whether in training or matches, and apart from when they were in a state of collapse straight after sessions, it was obvious that they enjoyed every minute of it.

Apart from the sheer professionalism displayed by our playing squad in all that they do, which was commented upon by a number of people we came across during the week, the success of this camp is in no small way attributable to the excellent off-field group of coaches, medical staff, analysts, logistical and catering staff, who plan each and every day meticulously. 

Central to it all was the hotel and its staff, and the staff at SV Aasen. Without all of them it could not have been so successful. 

But today, our last day, was matchday, and breakfast was thus optional prior to pre-match at the classic time of three-and-a-half-hours prior to kick-off.

Then the staff made their chosen way to the SV Aasen ground while the players took the coach for the match versus RC Strasbourg Alsace.

While a number of Strasbourg supporters travelled the 80-odd miles due south for this match, I counted and met just six Bees fans who, true to being Bees fans on the road, made more noise in support of our heroes.

Unfortunately, I don’t know their names, but two of them (father and son) managed to play Hey Jude over a mini speaker as the teams entered the pitch. Together with the other four (including two lads who now live in Czechia) they sung pretty much the whole raft of Bees songs throughout the match.

Five of the six were also at the Stuttgart match and the full six (plus many others) will also be in attendance this coming Saturday. However, the sixth Bee unfortunately missed Saturday’s match versus Stuttgart as he thought it was being played at their Mercedes-Benz Arena… some 200 kilometres from where it was actually played.

As you will be aware, a full match report can be found elsewhere.

Post-match was a quick turn round as the players and coaching staff had to shower, change, eat and then get on the coaches for the drive to Zurich Airport to catch the 7pm charter flight.

As it was, the traffic was kind to us and we made it in time and the resultant flight touched down in Luton at 8.15pm local time with rain heralding our return.

Then back at Jersey Road we said our farewells. But after a day’s rest and a day’s training it will be Friday, when there will be further training followed by our flight back to Germany in preparation for Saturday’s match.