How pre-season now looks for Portsmouth with players set to return
Pompey return for pre-season training after 54 days on Thursday. Here’s how things are currently looking for preparations for the new Championship camapaign.
The players are back in the area with batteries recharged.
Such are the requirements of competing at elite level, maintaining fitness is a must for Pompey’s squad across the closed season.
Just how well they’ve been doing that will become apparent, as the players report back to the club’s Hilsea training base on Thursday.
The EFL fixture release date coincides with the senior group being back together for the first time in 54 days, with the initial focus being fitness testing.
Fitness and performance coaches will no doubt be to the fore, as players are put through their paces through runs and gym work.
The squad will be hoping it’s not too long until the balls come out, with that generally an early feature of sessions under John Mousinho.
Training will really get going next week, with the players getting a clear bank of work into their legs at the Pompey Health & Fitness Club.
They will then head off for a pre-season training camp overseas, though details of their destination are still to be confirmed.
What is known is there will be no fixture as part of the camp, with Mousinho not a fan of factoring in a game at that formative stage of pre-season.
Similar matches in the past have brought a degree of chaos to proceedings, with the focus to build fitness and avoid unnecessary injuries.
Fixtures will arrive with a quick-fire double outing on Tuesday, July 14 at Woking (7pm), with a trip to the north of Hampshire to face Aldershot the following night (7pm).
There is currently a gap in the schedule on Saturday, July 18, with Pompey playing behind-closed-doors friendlies against the likes of Wycombe and Crawley at a similar point of the past two pre-seasons.
It’s the Chairboys who will provide the announced opposition at Adams Park on Saturday, July 25 with another visit to Farnborough the following Wednesday (July 29, 7pm).
Mousinho’s men eased to a 5-0 success at Cherrywood Road last summer.Finally, it’s the one Pompey fans are looking forward to, as they get to travel to Germany to back their team on Saturday, August 1.
It’s 2. Bundesliga outfit Darmstadt who lie in wait at the Merck-Stadion am Böllenfalltor, in the final warm-up which kicks off at 2pm local time.
With a new look to the season’s opening that will lead into the Carabao Cup first round, being played August 7-9. The Championship campaign then begins August 14-16.
Pompey will not play a pre-season game at Fratton Park this summer, with a new £1.5m pitch being laid at their home.