After an opening pre-season victory over Boreham Wood at the weekend, we continued our preparation for the 22/23 Premier League season with a trip to Germany. As always, Peter Gilham volunteered to provide us all with some behind the scenes context to all that goes on over the coming seven days.
Almost three years to the day since the First Team squad were last in mainland Europe for a camp, we're back. This time we have swapped the stunning beauty of the Austrian Tyrol for the majesty of Germany's Black Forest.
We're based in Donaueschingen, which is a township less than an hour's drive to both Switzerland and France. The area is best known for its forested mountain ranges, and probably of lesser concern to us, cuckoo clocks and gâteaux (although personally I wouldn't rule out the latter).
Our journey here started very early Tuesday morning as we made the journey to Luton for our charter flight to Zurich - about 90 kilometres due south. We departed on time, despite a certain member of the playing squad leaving their passport on the seat of their car back at the training ground. Fortuitously, he had left the keys with the security office and a frantic call to a local cab company saved the day. Needless to say I won’t embarrass him by saying who it was, I’ll leave you guessing.
We arrived at our hotel base for the week-long stay and had a late lunch. It has to be said that our hotel is immaculate and one of the very best we have used in recent seasons. It wasn't long before our first training session in the scorching sunshine, at a local club based around a kilometre away from the front door.
Such proximity means that you have a choice when getting to and from the hotel. Players and staff can get there by shuttle bus, bicycle, golf buggy or walking. While the players chose the bus, a few hardy members of the coaching staff cycled down.
I opted for the leisurely golf buggy, alongside club masseur Chris Domoney (aka Sladey). The only instructions we got were to 'turn left between the wheat and the corn'. The countryside in this part of Germany is absolutely beautiful, particularly on a late summer afternoon, and especially when you're being flanked by the legend that is Bob the Kitman and our new Director of Elite Performance Ben Ryan cycling along.
Thomas has a clear message for the players this week and that is: set a high standard. We must do everything we can to work hard and get as much from this trip as possible. You could tell from the first training session, which lasted almost two hours, that the boys are keen to do exactly that. I'm sure you'll have seen the evidence captured by our Content Team (Dan and Luke).
It was a long and tiring day, but spirits were high at dinner as the glowing sunset poured light through the large windows of the dining room. The highlight of my day was yet to come however, as I would later be introduced to Keane Lewis-Potter - our new signing announced yesterday evening. Happy days!
