The fitness element of training this season will only be tough until I'm satisfied that fitness is an advantage for us.  We got to that stage very quickly last season, so hopefully we'll do the same this season.  It's better to do that because then we don't need to waste training time on fitness and can move on to ball work and movement and stuff.  That happened naturally last season with the two-touch indoor training and that worked well, but only because everyone was fit enough by then to not need more running work, plus the two-touch meant that over an hour it was quite a fitness challenge as well.

The key for this season's training will be agility and having quick feet, as I think that these are the keys to actually becoming better players individually.  We play well as a team and will keep getting better the more we play, but individually to be more agile and to have faster feet, that's the aim.  I need to work out some training techniques for this, based on the limited equipment that we have (I'm not buying an "Agility Ladder" for £49.00) but I have a recurring dream about a big flight of stairs and you lot running up them.  A dream that I did not get to realise last season, so this year may be the one...