With the youth team squad being back in training for over a week now, Chris talks about how the lads have done so far, and also looks forward to pre-season friendlies and the season to come.
"The lads have been fantastic in the past week. They've come back really strong, so much so that some players are doing 150kg squats, which is more than double what some of the lads weigh! I'm really pleased with Guy Proctor's work over the summer, and the players have applied themselves to the training which is also very pleasing. We've been doing a lot technical work, which is all ball specific, and then of course we've also been doing physical work in turning and checking, which is European work if you like, and it improves the players' speed, power and reactions."
"We've been doubling up on days and will start to work in the afternoons by looking at different positional training. A lot of the work we do is repeated as this helps the knowledge get firmly in the minds of the lads. Overall I'm really pleased with the lads, they've been getting on with it, and our success will be based on the players we can help get into Keith and Dave's first team, as at the end of the day that is what we're building the players for."
The youth team will travel to Carrington on Wednesday 15th to take part in an innovative day of matches, as Chris tells us.
"Paul McGuinness at Manchester United put forward a great idea where ourselves, United, Burnley and Blackburn would play a few matches in a 9v9 environment. We'll be taking down two teams, included in which are some under-16s and trialists. This is so that one team can play for 30/35 minutes, and whilst they're resting the second team can play for the same amount of time. We'll play a few matches in the morning, have dinner at Carrington, then play another round robin in the afternoon. The pitch will be a bit smaller in length, but it will hopefully get the lads back into a competitive environment, and get them back in the swing of things."
Once all the friendlies and pre-season work is out the way, the proper footballing season will start, so how much is Chris looking forward to getting things going?
"Compared to when I came two years ago, the technical ability is much higher. We're heading in the right direction, and if I'm honest we're more bothered about the last game of the season than the first. I understand the need to get off to a good start, but in our eyes finishing well is more important, so we're focused on all our goals, short-term, middle-term, and long-term. But we are looking forward to getting going."
Chris also gave us an injury update on Danny Anderson who has recently had an operation on his knee after injuring it seriously at the start of last year's pre-season training.
"Dan had the same operation as Chris Dagnall did when he did his cruciate ligaments in the Centenary season, but also had to have an operation before that in order to strengthen the knee. The surgeon, who is a top, top surgeon having worked on players such as Roy Keane and Alan Shearer, has never had a player fully recover from this type of injury, but someone has to be the first and I hope for Dan's sake it's him. He's a fantastic lad who has got his head screwed on, and I really hope he can recover from it as he's been with us for over 12 months and hasn't kicked a ball yet."
