BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 the best possible pre-match preparation and if that means hotel visits for most away matches (including overnight stays where appropriate) then so be it. football players will be always be overpaid and over-pampered but that's the market we operate in. No argument whatsoever on the best possible preparation including hotel stays where appropriate but if last night's performance is anything to go by, "over-pampering" the players may be more risky than not. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darthter 542 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I'd much rather our players were afforded the best possible pre-match preparation and if that means hotel visits for most away matches (including overnight stays where appropriate) then so be it. The luxury pre-match preparations looked to work wonders last night - looked like 1/2 team hadn't fully woken from their mid afternoon nap..... Sitting on a bus for 2hrs before a match shouldn't have any effect on the players - it wouldn't do them any harm to "slum it" every now & then.... 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,146 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 The luxury pre-match preparations looked to work wonders last night - looked like 1/2 team hadn't fully woken from their mid afternoon nap..... Sitting on a bus for 2hrs before a match shouldn't have any effect on the players - it wouldn't do them any harm to "slum it" every now & then.... There are lots of reasons for performance level at any given match and preparation is just one. Does an afternoon nap in a hotel improve every player's levels? I'm not overly convinced but sports science people will say such preparation is best; not just for this match but for maximised ongoing performance - i.e. avoiding injury etc. Now, I'm not saying travelling direct (say from Auchenhowie) would have improved or worsened our display last night but it's not ideal either so I'd rather opt for the afternoon hotel visit under the most efficient of circumstances. But then again, I'd rather we had dorm facilities at Auchenhowie to enable players to do all their pre-match prep there and allow our youth players to stay there on a day-to-day basis also. How much would that add to the budget though? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,146 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 No argument whatsoever on the best possible preparation including hotel stays where appropriate but if last night's performance is anything to go by, "over-pampering" the players may be more risky than not. I don't think our pre-match routine is necessarily just with regard to single matches but ongoing performance over the course of a season as well. Once again the effects of that can be argued but given the costs involved I remain unconvinced this issue is as fiscally important as some think it is. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTP 0 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 According to @LibertIain on Twitter: "All in, hotel & subsistence costs around £200k (based off 2008/09 costs) per annum." OK, perhaps the issue does deserve some attention to see if we could be more efficient but clearly it's not a huge annual cost. So a years worth of hotel and subsistence costs for probably 25 staff ........................ or just a one off bonus to Stockbridge. I know what's better value. (PS I know he's returned it and may not be £200k but I'm sure wasn't far off) 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,146 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Better not show Ally this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2515877/Southampton-masterplan-win-Premier-League.html Back in the main car park at the training ground, which will soon be dug up and turned into a goalkeepers’ practice area, a white van is being loaded with tailored mattresses to be taken to the team hotel in Kensington, London. The players need a good night’s sleep and this neat idea, borrowed from the world of cycling, is a home comfort for Pochettino’s squad when they are travelling. Yesterday afternoon a team of outfitters pulled out each hotel bed and used a high-powered hoover to swallow up every particle of dust in the players’ hotel rooms. At the start of winter, when radiators are turned on for the first time in months, the air is thick with dust particles carrying germs and all manner of unhealthy bugs. These small, but impressive, touches are appreciated by the players and they understand the benefits. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zappa 0 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Frankie, that £200k p/a figure is interesting, but it's also 5 years old, so a bit outdated and from a period where we weren't playing as many games further afield. When you look at last season, we were visiting Elgin, Peterhead, Montrose, Berwick and Annan twice each in the league, so that's ten overnight stays just as a starting point. Add on the overnights for our cup visits to Forres, Brechin and Dundee and it all starts to add up. When you look at this season, we're traveling to Forfar , Arbroath, Brechin and Stranraer twice each and probably doing overnights (I'd be surprised if the team drove home from Forfar last night. Much more likely that most of them stayed in Carnoustie). Then we have places like Ayr, Dunfermline and Stenhousemuir where there could possibly have been hotel visits involved too. Matches in Ayr? Where would we have stayed there? The Marine Hotel or Piersland House for some Royal Troon action or just boring old Turnberry? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewarty 1,876 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Better not show Ally this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2515877/Southampton-masterplan-win-Premier-League.html Interesting. The cycling comparison is one I was thinking about on this issue. Dave Brailsford, the Team Sky and UK cycling boss has had a load of success by doing all those sorts of things to eek out fractions of percentage point of performance. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrahimHemdani 1 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 What were the Forfar stalwarts up to whilst our lads were having a siesta I wonder? 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frankie 8,146 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Frankie, that £200k p/a figure is interesting, but it's also 5 years old, so a bit outdated and from a period where we weren't playing as many games further afield. When you look at last season, we were visiting Elgin, Peterhead, Montrose, Berwick and Annan twice each in the league, so that's ten overnight stays just as a starting point. Add on the overnights for our cup visits to Forres, Brechin and Dundee and it all starts to add up. When you look at this season, we're traveling to Forfar , Arbroath, Brechin and Stranraer twice each and probably doing overnights (I'd be surprised if the team drove home from Forfar last night. Much more likely that most of them stayed in Carnoustie). Then we have places like Ayr, Dunfermline and Stenhousemuir where there could possibly have been hotel visits involved too. Matches in Ayr? Where would we have stayed there? The Marine Hotel or Piersland House for some Royal Troon action or just boring old Turnberry? I'd imagine the travel budget has increased so it may well be that figure has increased as well but given the desperate nature in which hotels are after business nowadays I'd fancy we'll have negotiated a nice corporate package. As far as I'm aware, the team did not stay overnight in Carnoustie. They were there for lunch, a team meeting and rest - not everyone sleeps in individual/double rooms though. Furthermore, the chances of any player having a round of golf are next to zero. Perhaps Durrant and one or two others that travel on the team bus may have a few holes from time to time but, even then, I very much doubt it. I'd hope our staff are more professional than that. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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