As footballers return to pre-season training some want a little more to try and give them an edge and that’s one area in which new enterprise Complete Player Performances can help.

Paul Barnes, former Greenwich Borough manager, Ashford United assistant manager, and Welling United first team coach has set up the project that can assist, but that’s a small part of what he aims to achieve.

His initiative is looking to allow Football Players of all levels to receive Professional Coaching, Analysis, Conditioning & Support. One of his aims is to restore players’ confidence and enjoyment of the game for players who have taken knocks. “There are players that are playing at a lower level than they should be, for one reason or another.” said Barnes. “We want them to enjoy playing again.”

Gone are the days when pre season is just running round and round Danson Park. Complete Player Performance had sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the last week of June. Whilst there was fitness training involved, it was football related and Dover Athletic’s fitness coach, Loui Fazakerley, ran an impressive session on the final day of the week. There are football drills, and everything is filmed so there is full analysis too.

Conditioning is provided by Huseyin Torgut who was Physio at Greenwich Borough last season and who will re-unite with Gary Alexander at Ashford United in 2018-19. He is also a director of Pro-Sports Management Ltd and is highly respected in his field.

An example of the player the programme is trying to help is 22 year old Tommy Cooney who has just joined Hungerford Town in the Vanarama National South. He came up through the ranks at Brentford and numbers Scarborough Athletic, Boston United and Morecambe amongst his clubs before coming back down south to Margate. Last season, he went to Australia where he played for Preston Lions.

Explaining his reason for joining the programme, Cooney explained “Paul is someone I would call a very good friend and someone who has supported me in my career. When he got this together it was a no-brainer for me in investment in myself to hopefully get back in full time football.”

Barnes confirmed that one player was joining a Bostik one club in South West London. Barnes said “He’s been playing football at a low level but he wants to see how good he can be. He has got a good job and it’s not about money but he is keen for extra training to see where it will take him.

He also mentioned that amongst the 150 or so players who have shown an interest, some were players that had been released from academies. Barnes said “They are used to full time training and have now joined part time clubs but want to train more than twice a week. We will try and accommodate them within their training schedules.

“I have been asked ‘what’s happening next week’ but I haven’t thought that far ahead. I’ve just been concentrating on what we’ve done this week.”

Another player involved throughout the week was Adem Ramadan who had a spell with Erith Town earlier last season. He explained his reason for joining the programme. “I was playing higher a few seasons ago but I had a bad injury so needed to drop down a few leagues to get my fitness back. I ended the season at Barking but hopefully I can push back up the leagues this year.”

Players who join the programme will be watched at their clubs too. “I will go and watch the players that sign up to the packages. I have got other members of staff too that I can hand over analysis to if I am needed elsewhere on a match day. If another opportunity comes up in management, I’ll be open to offers and to listen to people but at the moment my focus is on this project and trying to get the model right and get it off the ground.”

Judging from the evidence so far, Barnes appears to be firmly on the right track.