Karl Robinson has revealed that the initial stages of pre-season training for the 2017/18 season will take place in Portmarnock in Ireland.
Robinson used the Irish base in his Milton Keynes days. The manager wants to get his players as fit as possible ahead of the season, and would like to schedule nine or ten friendlies before the season starts.
Charlton are likely to play two or three games in Ireland before they return to the UK. Milton Keynes played hiigh profile Premier League opponents such as Chelsea and Everton when Robinson was in charge, so the Addicks could have a more intense pre-season than they have had recently.
Here are Robinson’s thoughts:
“I don’t think the players had a proper pre-season last summer because of everything that was going on with the club and everything will be arranged down to the last detail.
“Pre-season is one of the most important factors. I know exactly what I want to do and how long it is going to be. Anybody who played for me while I was at Milton Keynes said it was the hardest they had ever done.
“We need to finish this season strongly and every game is an audition. The players have to show me they want to be here and then we will work in pre-season on every factor, such as controlling how much rest and recuperation they get.
“I’d like to have nine or ten games in pre-season. That prep work has got to be detailed. Coming into this season the club had no sports science or sports medicine, they have learned from that. If you look now it has improved and moved forward. We’ve had meetings and have got a great group of staff working together.
“We’ll go out there (Ireland) almost straight away from meeting back up in the UK.
“Everything should be controlled by the football club – when they sleep and how much they sleep. It might be a bit old-school, a bit military but it is about making sure they get the right amount of rest and recovery so that we can maximise the amount of work they can do on the training ground.
“There are short-term, mid-term and long-term goals. I want us to finish the season in a very positive frame of mind.
“I believe Chris Powell did it five years ago here. He had a big changeover in the summer – got his pre-season right and his staff right. It is something I look to a little bit. Hopefully it will have the same result.”