Howe sticks to his guns on pre-season

Last updated : 28 May 2011 By Tony Scholes
Since the days of Stan Ternent and those trips to the Isle of Man, the Clarets have visited Austria, Italy, the USA and Singapore during pre-seasons as well as playing games in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but Howe said then he was not in favour.

At the time he said he felt the money would be better spent on the training facilities at the club rather than taking the players away to some far and distant land and gave almost a confirmation that the entire pre-season would be in England.

The club had already been discussing potential destinations and, for certain, one country in mainland Europe looked an almost certainty at one point, but Howe has stuck to his guns and turned down the opportunity for a trip to the South West of England that will feature two games, one confirmed against Bristol Rovers on Tuesday 19th July and one on the following Saturday, still to be confirmed, but expected to be Torquay United who are involved in today's League Two Play Off Final against Stevenage.

"First and foremost we didn't want a big expensive tour," Howe said yesterday, and, confirming what he'd told Clarets Mad over three months ago, he added: "We want any money to be re-invested into the facilities and into the team.

"That was a big consideration, but more importantly for us was the football consideration. I don't think travelling thousands of miles does the players any good. You can travel a long way and it takes two or three days to recover and pre-season is short enough as it is.

"We took the decision we wanted to stay in England, play a couple of games and get the players away and together for a period of time. We think that's really important and we just wanted to get the distance down and really concentrate on quality training sessions, with some good games as well.

"I think we can get exactly what we need here. The positive side of going away is generating your team spirit with a new group of players. It doesn't matter where you go to do that. You can do that with a short tour and I think it will have big benefits for us."

Howe has also stressed the need to get the players as fit as possible during the pre-season, and ready for the long season ahead. He added: "It's a big part of our philosophy getting the lads as fit and as strong as they can be. It's difficult when you come half way through a season because you can't work them as much as you like, so pre-season is going to be important.

"I'm really pleased with the pre-season schedule. It looks good. There is a gradual build up in quality, ending with a really good game against Sunderland which will be a really good test before the season starts.

"It gives the fans the chance to come and watch us as well locally and if they want to travel so hopefully they will enjoy it."