Pre-Season Training Quotes

The biggest thing I will miss is 4 July when Everton are due back for pre-season training. I loved that day. I lived for it, getting back with the lads.

I remember my dad ringing me up and giving me my GCSE results when I was at Thorp Arch for pre-season training. A month later, I was playing in the first team. It was pretty amazing, really. I think if you stopped and thought about it at the time, it would have hit you.

Until spring training in 1946, the only time I pitched was in 1945 in the GI World Series.

At school, I was always a central midfielder from a young age. Then, when I joined Villa at 16, the pre-season didn't go too well, so they looked at me as a centre-half.

My last year of football I started having a couple of MMA fights, and bringing the weight down. It started in the pre-season of football, just to keep fit, and I did really well.

Every summer is important. If you have a bad summer, it can have consequences for the whole season. If you don't get people to rest and to have a very good pre-season, you can start the season chasing.

When I started my career, we were running around water parks and ridiculous things like that. You used to drive in dreading pre-season back then, but now you know it's going to be pretty tough, but it's going to be probably what you need. It's going to be good for you instead of just slogging away.

At the beginning of the season, you're still getting your fitness levels up, and those first few games are quite tough.

Any football player will tell you that in July you get this dark cloud over you if you know camp's coming.

For a player, it is important to work and work well and improve every day in pre-season.

I've definitely got better over the years at conserving my energy in pre-season - at knowing what to focus on and what to let go.

I've done a lot of work in the gym preparing myself for what is certain to be pretty strenuous pre-season training - something I've not previously experienced. And I knocked local football on the head this winter, simply to ensure I didn't pick up any injuries.

The way to make coaches think you're in shape in the spring is to get a tan.