News from Wimbledon's Italian training camp
AFC Wimbledon have been making the most of excellent facilities at Monza this week with double training sessions, but there has been a bit of spare time for team bonding and “a poor show” from Simon Bassey’s quiz team!
Neal Ardley last night sent his update from the first-team’s training camp in Italy and this is published in full below.
Following a slight hiccup of the coach driver dropping our players off at the wrong hotel on Monday night, the tour has been a success so far.
AC Monza Brianza 1912.The team arrived late on Monday and were up early on Tuesday morning for breakfast before jumping on the coach for the 15-minute journey to the Monzella -training ground of
had travelled across early in the morning to make sure everything was ready for the players so that when they arrived the boys could crack on. The staff at Monza FC have been brilliant and so helpful, which bodes well for a great week.Ivor Hellor and Neil Cox, Ashley Bayes
through a goalkeeping fitness session and boy you could tell looking at Ross and Seb around midday. They could hardly lift their legs!Seb Brown and Ross Worner’ as he put Bayzo, which is important, especially after travelling, to prevent the risk of muscle injuries. This is something we have worked hard on during pre-season. During this time the only voice you could hear was that of ‘Jason MoriartyThe players started the day with 40 minutes work, which consisted of warming up and prehabilitation with
Outfield players worked on patterns of play that focused on being incisive in the final third and you could tell this was our first session on this area because there was a touch of rustiness as regards the quality on show.
Our second Tuesday morning session was purely based on transition; it focused on the repetitive knowledge we need to gain in order to be an organised, efficient and resilient team when we haven't got possession of the ball. This will be revisited and progressed on Thursday.
Following a wonderful lunch prepared by the Monzella staff, our players jumped on the coach and back to the hotel for an afternoon of sleep before the evening session at 5.30 pm. This was a specific planned fitness session; our goalkeepers were the only players not working to their maximum because they had done that in the morning.
The element of fitness was speed endurance done in a position specific crossing and a finishing session in three teams with a forfeit for the losers. It takes a lot of setting up and organising to run smoothly, but it's worth it for the output that we get.
were busy keeping the flow of balls for the start of each group with Jason Moriarty monitoring the heart rates on his laptop (to tell the manager and players if they needed to increase their tempo). At the same time the manager is timing everything to the second on his stopwatch and pushing the players on. Meanwhile ‘Bayzo’ was his usual noisy self, driving and encouraging everyone involved.Simon Bassey and Neil Cox
The boys were brilliant and worked to their maximum (it's funny what competition does for you) and comments from players such as "my legs had gone on the fourth run and we still have eight to do" were commonplace. However, the players never dropped their levels at any time. The effort and desire was first class.
.Neal ArdleyWednesday was a rest day before another double training session on Thursday. This provided an opportunity for team bonding among the staff and players, culminating in a quiz after dinner hosted by
David Charles. and Peter Sweeney, Barry Fuller, Jack Midson, Luke Moore, Stuart DouglasRhys Weston,’ and his team finished last, well behind our Champion quiz team, which consisted of Bass hardly advertising their claims to appear on Mastermind! That meant ‘Rhiannon Luke and Luce-Jim Fenlon, Seb Brown, Ross Worner, Kevin SainteA poor show from Simon’s team followed with
It was an early night for the lads in Monza though in preparation for another productive day on Thursday.