3/1 To Win
Gary Rowett is looking forward to welcoming Derby County’s players back for pre-season training later this week.
Derby’s squad will report back for duty on Wednesday 28th June to kick-start their preparations for the 2017/18 campaign.
The players will undergo testing on Wednesday before getting down to the hard graft on the training pitches with Rowett and his backroom team the following day.
After signing off for the summer following the 1-1 draw at Rotherham United back on Sunday 7th May, the majority of Derby’s players have had a long summer to recharge their batteries.
Rowett admits he’s looking forward to seeing his squad return, especially with the Training Centre in partnership with the University of Derby being a quiet place to work during the last seven weeks.
He told RamsTV: “The Training Centre will go from being very quiet to lots of players either moaning or screaming in agony!
“We are looking forward to it and I’m like every other manager; sometimes you get a little bit impatient.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do but I think we’re all aware that we want the team and the squad to have a very different feel.
“I’m pleased with some of the comments of the players that have gone away.”
Derby’s players were all given fitness programmes to work on during the summer in order to remain in shape.
Each member of the squad was provided with technology which will allow them to track and download their workload, allowing the club to monitor their progress.
Rowett has been impressed with how the players have worked whilst away from the club, having made it clear he wants his squad to be in the best possible condition to get straight down to work during pre-season.
He said: “They have worked incredibly hard and some have done more than they were expected to do.”
“One of the players rang me the other day and one of the first things I said was ‘don’t tell me your watch has blown up!’
“We’ve been downloading their reports and I think the main thing behind it was to drive them to come back fit and conditioned and making sure they’ve been diligent enough as we would expect.
“They’ve all worked really hard and we didn’t want the opening two weeks of pre-season to be about them getting fit, they should be strong anyway.
“All the best teams worked incredibly hard. We will work hard tactically and technically, but they need to be physically fit as well.”
