At the start of Brian Dick's fourth day in Marbella with Birmingham City, he grabbed a quick word with new Blues winger Jacques Maghoma.
The 27-year-old told Our Man At Blues that he has had a reminder of just how gruelling Gary Rowett's pre-seasons can be under his former Burton boss.
Temperatures reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Wednesday afternoon and Maghoma says the six-day trip has been anything but a holiday camp."It's been tough," the former Sheffield Wednesday winger said.
"Pre-season is always tough, there's nowhere you will go where pre-season is easy.
"But under him [Rowett] I knew it was going to be tough, so I pretty much prepared my summer right.
BIRMINGHAM MAIL PHOTOGRAPHER TIM EASTHOPE HAS BEEN BUSY...
There are some brilliant pictures from the tour right here - http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/all-about/birmingham-city-in-marbella
Blues goalie coach Kevin Poole believes that the club could have the best goalkeeper in the Championship in Tomasz Kuszczak.
"Off the top of my head I can't think of anyone who would be better," Poole said.
"It’s quite a coup for the club, we are really pleased we have got him in.
"He’s got lots of experience, he has been at big clubs, we were looking for somebody with that experience and he has fit the bill really well.
"He’s a good strong, character, which is what we need. He’s a good communicator.
MEET MR FITNESS...
While Birmingham City's players are experiencing Gary Rowett’s pre-season instructions for the first occasion, an even newer voice belongs to head of sports science Dave Carolan.
The Irishman has been as prominent a figure in Blues’ Marbella training camp as any, with his lilting accent exhorting ever greater efforts from the sun-baked squad.
If there’s a warm up, warm down or a demanding physical session to be done you can guarantee Carolan is the one barking the orders.
It’s easy to see he enjoys his work. Twenty years turning professional sportsmen into even fitter professional sportsmen tells that story.
He told Brian Dick: "The players have a huge responsibility as well in terms of their lifestyle, their rest their rehydration and regeneration they do at home and if they are refuelling correctly. All of those are key to staying injury free.
"The ultimate goal is that we keep as many players as fit and available for the manager at all times.
"Along the way we may have come players who break down, our role is to minimise the preventable ones.
"If a player smashes into one of our players and there's a contact injury we may not be able to do anything about that.
"But with their gym work as well we want players to be robust, we want them to be able to cope with the physicality of the game - other players running into them."
WHO HAS IMPRESSED
ON DAY FOUR THEN?
After a light recovery session on Wednesday evening Blues were right back at it on Thursday morning with a set of gruelling attack drills.
Gary Rowett focused on the pace of Blues' attacking today, constantly emphasising the need for up-tempo passing and sharp finishing.
Initially two teams of ten took it in turns attack an empty goal, building from the back and using the wings.
After that the teams opposed each other, alternately acting as the defending side.
Finally Rowett broke the players up into groups of three on three, playing with intensity into full-size goals on a quarter pitch.
Here’s who did well.
Paul Caddis
The Scot's work-rate has been high in every session and his conscientiousness has been apparent by his constant checking of his GPS data with the conditioning team.
He even breaks into the odd random sprint just to bump up his numbers.
He was impressive once again today, with the ball and without it.
He sent over some excellent crosses in the ten-on-ten and scored a delicious goal in the three-on-three which curled away from Adam Legzdins and nestled in the corner.
Wes Thomas
When the emphasis has been on attacking with pace sometimes the finishing hasn't been of the highest quality.
However, Thomas bucked that today with some excellent finishes in each exercise. He was alert to scramble home from close range in the ten-on-ten and was clinical on a couple of occasions in the three-on-three.
Confidence is so important to a striker and he will have benefitted from seeing the ball hit the back of the net so regularly.
David Cotterill
It's difficult to pick a third candidate because everyone worked well in the morning session and Rowett told his men: "I can’t fault a single player."
But just as he does in games Cotterill produced a couple of moments of quality, one cross and one shot, which demonstrated his ability on the ball.
