F Is For Fitness

The Blackpool players return to training on Thursday ahead of their debut season in the Premier League, having been attached to a heart rate monitor for the past six weeks.

Ian Holloway spoke last season of his desire to use heart rate monitors and other such equipment, and promotion to the Premier League has enabled him to do so.

What this means is that any player who has been slacking during their six weeks off will soon be caught out, with Ollie acknowledging that his players are going to have to be fitter than ever before next season.

Speaking to the official website, Ollie said:

‘We’ve given each individual these monitors and told them what heart rate they need to maintain.

‘It means they should return in good nick and that will enable me to get the balls out early on in the pre-season, rather than us just running.

‘And we need to get the balls out early because that will suit the way we want to play.

‘I want them fully fit and they are going to have to raise their fitness levels from what they were last season.

‘They will have to eat better, and we will be going into their diet and looking at nutrition a lot more than we did last year.’