Football Coaching: Creating An Effective Pre Season Programme

So Tony, fantastic career up to this point, unbelievable experience and knowledge.

What we're going to sort of zoom in on first are those Arsenal years, the Wenger era, the evolution of fitness.

So you mentioned there you spent near on 20 years working alongside Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.

How did you see the philosophy around physical conditioning evolve from those early days to those final seasons at the club? Well, the involvement for me,

to put it into perspective, I would say, for example, the early days I would be saying to Arsene, Gaffer, we need to spend more time in the gym.

And in the later days, I'd be saying, Gaffer, we need to spend less time in the gym.

But the time we spent needed to be more effective.

So it was about getting more from less.

That was really much the mantra from me because I'm very, very keen.

I've always been very keen to help develop the football player as well as the athlete.

So I would say the modern way now, I think we're developing the athlete more than the football player.

That's my personal opinion on the way things have gone in the last few years.

So, yes, it was very much about trying to implement the physical training that linked with the technical requirements of players.

So that's what changed over a period of time.

And that was very much a team effort, including us and including other people at the club.

The early days when I started, Arsene was already changing.

He'd already been in there a year and a half, so he was already changing the philosophy of training as such.

And I just helped that along and then took it on to a level which I was obsessed with technique.

So my physical training needed technique involved in it for me, for it to be effective.

And that happened very early because after about a year with the club, I was talking to Boro Pimerak, who was a great coach there.

And he was there at the same period of time as me, so for the full 20 years and a bit more.

And I said, what do you think of the training I do? He said, I love it.

He said, but it's nothing to do with football.

And that was a real, it was an epiphany moment for me.

That really changed my attitude to how we train.