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Pre Season - doing something different

Prodigal Son

Manager
Joined
Apr 6, 2005
Messages
1,525
Location
South East Essex in the Hills
Got back at the weekend from two weeks in the Algarve and witnessed a number of UK teams warm weather training with the likes of Celtic,Sunderland,Middlesborough,Cardiff,MK Dons all having been there in recent times, and Bristol City training close to where I was staying.

It got me thinking why don't we do that ? I immediately thought we could not afford it but then I bumped into Rushden & Diamonds and even cash stricken Gillingham have been to La Manga.

Teams were training 3 times a day,playing each other and some local opposition. Thurrock,Braintree,Canvey,Chelmsford,etc combined with the hills of Gloucester Park and Club Kingswood just does'nt have the same appeal does it?

I do not read too much into pre-season, but wonder if a different approach is called for?

I went to a tornament involving Celtic,Middlesboro,Cardiff and a Portuguese team I can't spell, interesting stuff, but still very pre-season. Sat in the Boro section,zero singing, and even the 700+ Celtic made very little noise.
 
I often wonder why we don't go up to Scotland for a pre-season tour.We could take in some of the better teams in league 1 or even a couple of the Prem teams and it would give the supporters a chance of a holiday in Scotland as well, much better than playing Canvey or Great Wakering
 
Having missed out on the Anglo-Italian years and assuming we'll never qualify for the UEFA Cup (although Millwall have in recent years, so it's not impossible) I'd love to have the opportunity to see us play in a different country.

Wonderful it was somewhere like Portugal, but Scotland or Ireland would also be fantastic.
 
I often wonder why we don't go up to Scotland for a pre-season tour.We could take in some of the better teams in league 1 or even a couple of the Prem teams and it would give the supporters a chance of a holiday in Scotland as well, much better than playing Canvey or Great Wakering

I've been saying this for years.
Surely a tour away would be a great chance for the squad to gel especially with any new arrivals? Think it would add to the positive morale of the team.

Loads of L1 & CCC teams play up here.
Hartlepool for example have played Morton, Falkirk & Hamilton this pre-season.

Even if we wanted to limit the travelling to games whilst on tour, there must be at least 20 teams in SPL & Divs 1&2 who we could play within an hour's travelling of a base near Edinburgh, Stirling (a lot of teams use the Uni of Stirling as it's the Scottish Sports Centre of Excellence) or Glasgow.

No doubt a similar type of tour could be organised in Ireland, although I guess with the League of Ireland now running spring-autumn it might be trickier to fit in games as teams over there are mid-season.
 
Oooh a trip to Scotland, sounds great.....:D

So you would rather play Chelmsford or Billericay than maybe have a game against Hibbs or Dundee......mmmmmmm I wonder!!!

as a club we wouldn't go abroad as they have no money the best we would do is go to Barry Island in Wales and stay at Butlins
 
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