Vincenti pleased with Tenerife trip
The players returned from Tenerife last week, and despite being put through three gruelling sessions a day, Peter Vincenti says the trip was very enjoyable and gave him the opportunity to get to know his new team mates.
With Manager Keith Hill completing much of his business during the close season, it meant a 25 man squad made the trip to Tenerife, with just one trialist on board.
Vincenti told www.rochdaleafc.co.uk getting away early in pre-season has been beneficial: “Obviously I’m new to the club and there are quite a few other guys who have also just signed in so it was nice to be somewhere where we were all together. After training the lads normally go their separate ways and it takes a bit of time to get to know each other so going away so quickly and being with the lads was excellent because it give me a chance to get to know them all. It’s a good group of lads and I’m looking forward to the season ahead now.”
It is safe to say that footballers usually dread the first few days back and the 27-year-old jokes that no matter how many pre-seasons they do, it never gets any easier.
“They never get any easier and I think they get worse the older you get actually! But no, it was nice to go somewhere different for pre-season and where the sun is shining. Pre-season is always going to be difficult, you don’t expect it to be anything else. The lads worked hard and I think the management was happy with how it went.”
Vincenti was one of Hill’s first summer signings with the utility man agreeing a deal with the club at the beginning of May. He says it was an easy decision: “After the season had finished I spoke to Keith Hill so I knew that Rochdale were interested. I remembered playing against Rochdale a couple of years ago during the promotion season and how well the football was then. Once I knew the Gaffer was interested it was a pretty easy decision to make, it is a good fit for me.”
Vincenti made the switch to Spotland from relegated Aldershot Town where he had spent two and half years. He admits last season was difficult, but is keen to learn from it. “It was a terrible season. At the start nobody expected Aldershot to end up where they came at the end of it, especially not the players involved. It was a tough season and disappointing how it finished. It was a learning curve for me and I never want that to happen again so it has given me an incentive to not let it happen again.”
Vincenti has had to uproot for the move to Rochdale but he says it hasn’t been too stressful: “Getting the removal vans and all that organised can be a bit of a nightmare, but my partner is from up North, I’ve had family in Manchester and I studied Business Management and Sports Science at university in Liverpool so I’ve lived up here before. It hasn’t been too a hard a transition really!”
The countdown to the new campaign is now well and truly underway with the first pre-season friendly set to kick-off tonight, and Vincenti can’t wait to get back into action.
“That’s what all the players want. You try and replicate it on the training pitch but we want to be playing games and now the games have come it is exciting. We’ve got the first week out of the way and now that the pre-season friendlies are happening, the start of the season really can’t come quick enough.”