" It's ended up a great summer for us, I was expecting a couple of injuries over the summer. Simon Hackney had a little bit of work to do over the summer but managed to do that in a short period of time. He had a couple of spells at Lilleshall at the back end of the season and one early on in the summer. With the work he has been doing here and on his holidays, swimming and things like that, he has managed to get all quadricep strength and leg strength back up to equal and better than his opposite leg. That is good news for him, it meant he could have a little break from actually being in with me training and doing the day-to-day work stuff. He'll be fighting fit for the start of the season.
" With the amount of time that we have off you will get everybody back fit but you're never sure with big injuries like Simon's. He's been out for five months now and you're never quite sure that it might linger on for an extra month which in Simon's term that's nothing much. You always want to start the season though to give the gaffer (Neil McDonald) a clean bill of health and get everybody a good and full pre-season under their belts.
" It's not so much as advice I give them when they come back, what they are given when they leave back at the start of May is a programme to do. The programme is roughly around three weeks of complete rest, i.e. they can play golf and do other sports if they so wish but they generally just let their body settle down for about three weeks of running and football work. Then we start them with a gradual build-up of about four to five weeks of work that is progressively upped, as it is week-by-week.
" So that when they come back they have got a nice decent baseline of fitness and they are ready for pre-season. Our pre-season is already done and scheduled from last year and previous years, and from the start of this year it's planned and every day is set out. Again, that is a gradual build-up for the first fortnight into them becoming fully fit by the end of the five or six weeks of pre-season. They hit that top form and their peak fitness.
" Everything really is scheduled for them, generally the first week or two it's a bit steadyaway and just a build-up. They are told that any single thing that they feel that they let myself, the gaffer and the rest of the staff know. We monitor that daily, even morning and afternoon, to see what they can do and what they can't do, and we're very cautious that we try not to pick up any injuries because of that. "
" Pre-season is probably the most important time of the year, you often hear that players who miss pre-season because of injuries are always trying to catch up. That is 100% right, if you can get a good pre-season under your belt and be fully fit in pre-season then that sets you up for the rest of the season. If you can get that under your belt it often stands you in good stead that you will last the season, and also that you won't pick up as many injuries as you will do if you don't get a pre-season under your belt.
" When I saw the new players who signed a few weeks ago I gave them all a programme. They had already started their own little bits and bobs, one they had been given from their own clubs and one that they had been doing themselves. Basically though, if they can then stick to our programme then we know exactly where they are at when they come back. It's not a case of that they might need to do a little bit of catching up or they are a bit ahead of the rest.
" They might be naturally fit themselves but if we know that they have done our programme then we know basically that everybody is roughly around about the same level. There are going to be some at the back and there are going to be some at the front. You know though that it is a good standard and that when we start next week that they are prepared to do what we are going to do with them and they shouldn't have any problems with that.
" This is my worst time of the year, it's a nightmare. Not so much because of the pre-season running , the ground has become rock hard, they have got to train on grass or wherever but the grass is just as hard as concrete. That then puts pressure on ankles, knees, hips and then through to backs, you get little things that come. The games are just a logistical nightmare, you're playing two or sometimes three games a week.
" It's like Christmas time and Easter time, you have that run of five days and you have got three games, and you've got to get them ready. Although it's a bit easier in pre-season because you can pull players out, they only play half a game or sixty minutes or whatever. I hate pre-season to be honest, I can't wait for the season to start and then we get into the normal routine that we possibly could be Saturday then Tuesday but generally it's Saturday then Saturday. "
" You often find that it's not so much the pre-season training that you get the injuries but it's the actual games and the knocks. It's because players are wanting to impress, they want to start that season, they want that shirt and that number and they are trying to impress the manager and the coaches. They try to do a little bit extra, they might be diving into tackles and things like that so I cringe half the time. I just like to get through it basically as quickly as possible and with as few injuries as possible.
" I'm used to it, I've been here 15 years now and I'm used to having my time off in the summer and working nine months solid, Christmas, Bank Holidays. Late nights two or three nights a week with the reserves and weekends away, I'm happy the way it is, I don't feel that at our level, or even in the Premier League, I don't think there should be a winter break. It's different for other continents and things like that, that's the way they do it and that's the way they are set up.
" We're set up for this way, I think a winter break would take away the tradition of English football in the rain, the wet and the cold weather. That's why our league is so exciting, when you get to the summer leagues I think that it takes a bit away from it.
" Our aim is always to do better so next year it will be seventh, or play-offs, or even top three. The thing I would say about that is that your second season is always more difficult than the first. We had adrenaline, the win sequences, the confidence, everything went for us at the start of the season and you saw at the start of the season that we took that through for a good period of time. It's about getting that winning mentality back again, it's about starting the season well and building on that, and then keep adding to like we did a bit last year.
" What I would say is that this season is going to be a bit more difficult. Hopefully with the new signings, and there are probably still more to come, new faces, new ideas, new enthusiasm throughout the side then we can keep that going and progress onwards and upwards. Hopefully, who knows, we might get to the Championship this year, if not then in the very near future. "