Following the first training session and some dinner, Head Coach Dean Smith sat down with Bees Player in the field office at our Germany base to outline the week ahead.
“It was an early start at Jersey Road for seven o’clock breakfast and then a short coach ride to Heathrow.” Said Dean, “There was a couple of hours to wait but they got us through very quickly and it was a nice smooth flight into Dusseldorf before a couple of hour coach journey.”
Work got straight underway, with enough time for light snacks before a light training session commenced on the pitches directly adjacent to the hotel.
“The hotel is beautiful” Dean notes. “We’re all in the same building and the food has been fantastic. We’ve had a light training session so far. It’s been great to have get the likes of Lasse Vibe and Romaine Sawyers on the training ground for the first time in pre-season because obviously we have late arrivals due to International duty so we gave them an extra week off.
“The planning for this started three or four months ago. We sat down with Rob Rowan about the sort of place I wanted to go.
“You can gather by my hair colour I didn’t want to go somewhere too hot! It’s nice to get away and it just allows the new players to mix in with the older players and for everybody to get to know one another and to understand what myself and Richard [O’Kelly] want to from them.
The Head Coach is very conscious about getting through pre-season injury free and with the players having played 45 minutes against Boreham Wood less than 24 hours earlier, Dean preferred to ease the squad into the Germany programme. “I’m sure Richard and Chris Haslam would have liked to have had more of a session today, but we’ve had a day on the feet in terms of the journey and though it’s not too far I don’t want to go on and risk any injury. For me it’s about getting the journey out of the legs and have a bit of fun as well before the hard work starts tomorrow.
“We want to get the physical aspect out of them, the tactical and the mental aspect has been worked on by Tom Bates as well. There’s a lot we want to get out of them. It’s great to be confined in a small area where we have a lot of contact time with the players. It’s not like we have them at the training ground and they go home. If I need to meet with the players they’re here, and we can get some individual development plans for them to get better. There will be a lot of downtime for them, but during that down time they can spend it well with other members of staff discussing what we need to work better at.”
Dean went on to talk about the week’s itinerary and how much there is to get through in our short stay in Harsewinkel. “Our infamous Kit Man Bob [Oteng] travelled down in a big transit van along with Neil Greig with a lot of kit for us. There’s an awful lot of planning logistically kit wise, but for us the planning is getting ready for Huddersfield Town and that starts here. We’re working with the players in terms of new ideas. We have a new set piece analyst who has had some really good ideas already that we’re working on.
“It’s a case of fitting everything in so come 6 August the players are fully fit, fully focussed, tactically aware and mentally prepared for a long season ahead.
You can watch the full interview on Bees PlayerHD now, and get some exclusive access to the Training Camp via Snapchat (BrentfordFC).