A revealing insight into Blues’ pre-season Croatian camp
Ryley Towler assessed Pompey’s gruelling preseason training camp and admitted: It’s intense.
The Blues defender confessed the club’s relentless programme in Croatia is taking its toll on John Mousinho’s squad.
But Towler believes the hard work is paying off, after the group returned in better condition than ever for preseason training this summer.
John Mousinho has been putting his players through the wringer this week, after touching down on the Istrian peninsula last Saturday morning.
Doubles sessions have been the order of the day, on top of a 7am 5km run along the Adriatic Coast for the 25 players present.
That pattern will continue ahead of the games programme beginning at Gosport Borough next Tuesday, with quickfire games against Hawks and Bognor to follow.
Towler gave an insight into not only the challenge Pompey’s squad are facing, but also the standards which continue to be driven up in the first-team group.
He said: ‘I’ve been sweating so much! It’s been good but it’s been hot and tough.
‘Don’t get me wrong, this is what pre-season is for to get fit. We’ve done some tough runs but the boys have come back in great shape.
‘We get a schedule over the summer, (physical performance coach) George (Bell) sends that out for us to do.
‘The first couple of weeks you just get time to rest and chill, because that’s important after a long, old season.
‘But after that it gets bumped up to a couple of runs and by the time we come back we’re doing four or five a week.
‘It gets pretty intense, but it shows the boys have done it because everyone has come back really fit.
‘We’ve all beat our times from last year, so it’s really good.
‘I’m not going to lie, it’s really, really hard. It’s intense and it’s competitive, everyone has a winning mentality - even the rondos or warm-up games. We all want to win and it lifts the standards.’
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The picturesque setting of Medulin is the backdrop to the Blues’ build-up to their Championship return after 12 years.
After the searing heat of southern Spain in Mijas last year, the Adriatic Coast was chosen this time around as Mousinho’s men spent this week stepping up their training workloads.
Part of the idea was slightly less scorching conditions for the players to contend with.
There were some bleary eyes last Saturday morning,