Steven Schumacher welcomes players to Clayton Wood for pre-season training this morning with a warning about what they’ll face.
Steven Schumacher starts his first pre-season as Stoke City boss this morning in no doubt about the importance of the next six weeks.
Schumacher, who joined as head coach in December, has been organising the pre-season programme with his head of performance Elliot Turner, who was also with him at Plymouth, to make sure players are ready to handle the approach he will demand when the Championship starts at home against Coventry City on Saturday, August 10 (12.30pm kick-off).
There are six friendlies in the diary, starting with a trip to Chester on Thursday, July 11, and wrapping up with a home game against Bruno Martins Indi’s AZ Alkmaar on Saturday, August 3, and fitting in a week-long training camp in Cork from Saturday, July 13.
There will be more work in the transfer market too in terms of signings and exits. Three new players – Viktor Johansson, Ben Gibson and Eric Bocat – have already arrived and will meet their new teammates properly today.
Schumacher said: “It feels like it’s been a long time. It’s dead exciting, I can’t wait to get the players in and get back to work.
“It’s going to be hard work, there’s no denying that, it’s going to be very hard – but it’s all with the ball. It’s stuff that players enjoy. Like always there is going to be an element of running in that but it’s not just needless running around the pitch like it might have been when I was playing. It’s a lot more sophisticated now.
“Elliot Turner runs a brilliant programme in pre-season and hopefully we’ll see the benefits of that not just at the start of the season but throughout the season as well. It’s important we lay the foundations from Day One.”
Schumacher has welcomed Chris Cohen as assistant head coach, joining Mark Hughes and Peter Cavanagh in the back room set-up while Alex Morris is stepping over with the seniors on a full-time basis. Andy Foster has re-joined the club as head of medical while coach Paul Gallagher and physio Nick Meace have said their goodbyes.
So Schumacher has been able to get away for a fortnight but it has been a busy close season.
He said: “I had a nice break, going over to the States and seeing my wife’s family who live out there. It was a couple of weeks to reflect, recharge and get ready to go again.
“It’s obviously going to be a huge season this year and whenever I haven’t been on holiday I’ve been in the building, planning and trying to work with the recruitment team and making sure that we’re organised.
“There’s been a fair bit of change with the staff behind the scenes and it’s been a busy summer but we’re ready to go again and I can’t wait.”