The Watford head coach believes taking the squad away from London Colney for a week will “do us the power of good” as preparations continue for the new season.
Tom Cleverley revealed after Saturday’s friendly defeat at Gillingham that the Hornets will be spending this week at the FA’s national football centre at St George’s Park in Burton-on-Trent.
As well as working on the training pitches at the base for the England teams, Cleverley sees the week away as an ideal opportunity to further build the spirit in the camp ahead of the start of the new Championship campaign on August 10.
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“With the season finishing so early it means you can’t really give the players eight weeks off, six weeks pre-season, so you go seven weeks off, seven-week pre-season,” he explained.
“Seven weeks is a lot of training with no competitive games so you like to freshen it up, a change of scenery, get the lads together, team bonding and the evening meals, it will do us the power of good.”
This week also sees the Hornets play two games in the space of five days as they travel to Edinburgh to face Hibernian in a friendly on Wednesday.
Although a midweek trip to Scotland presents certain challenges, Cleverley views it as another valuable part of the preparations.
“It’s important that everyone gets minutes and gets their bodies durable enough for a long old season,” he said of the prospect of playing two games inside a week.
“Hibernian is logistically not ideal because the staff will be split on Wednesday, half taking training and I’ll be going up to Hibernian myself to take the game, but it’s another good chance for them to get minutes and a learning opportunity for us as staff to see some of the younger players.”
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