As Kent basks in the heatwave, spare a thought for our footballers who this week return for pre-season training. We’ve been talking to Gillingham boss Gareth Ainsworth who admitted that the 2026 World Cup Finals mean an earlier than usual start for our Football League Clubs.

“It should have been the ninth of August,” the Gills boss told us, “But because of the World Cup next summer, it has all been moved forward a week by the FA to the second.”

“And so to get a five week pre-season in, which is the minimum that we need, it will be the start of July that we start full on, but the boys will be in by the middle of the week – the last week of June – for testing a couple of days in advance.”

“It is a bit tough on the players this season as it was always the first of July we were back in my day, but this year, it’s a June date that we are back in and that doesn’t happen very often!”

“They will all be back in during the week and sporadically during the week, we will do some testing to find out where the baselines are and where they are as really, we have to get going from that weekend, especially as we have some great pre-season games coming up, some really, really good ones that will be good tests for us and hopefully we can show what we are capable of on day one on the second of August!” 

“The two games here will be good tests for us against Luton and Reading – with that and the fact that the local Clubs in Kent are really good and really accommodating as it’s all about pitches being ready, the right surfaces and the right test for the boys and I think we more or less have everything in place, but I can tell the fans that they won’t have to travel too far this year; there’s no away trip planned as I want to spend the money in different areas environment wise.”

“So, a trip to wherever where players can get into trouble or fixtures can be on dodgy pitches… we know what we are getting so want to keep it in house this year!” 

“I hope that when the players come back, they will notice a difference in this place and they feel like we are trying to improve what we can do, the best we can, doing our bit!”

“The ultimate standard will be having our own training ground, and I would love to get that one day and believe me it’s something that I am working towards, and I want to be here when that happens… and that will be long term.”

“But at the moment, these little wins that I can get with the players saying, look I am giving you this, you go and run through a brick wall for me on a Saturday and then we can see what happens!”