Boss Roy Keane says he and chief executive Simon Clegg will look more closely at the club’s 2010/11 pre-season campaign this week. The Blues boss is thinking about reprising last summer’s games in Ireland and training camp in Portugal but is less keen on another session at an army barracks.
Keane said: "We’ve got teams lined up. We went to Portugal last year, which was absolutely brilliant and I wouldn’t rule out going there again. No doubt there will be a few games in Ireland as we probably won’t be afford to be able to go too far abroad. We’ve got plenty of options to look at and we’ll do all that this week."
The Blues boss says some aspects of last year's programme - which included two trips to Ireland for friendlies - are likely to be changed: "There was stuff last year which wasn’t all perfect, as much as [fitness coach] Antonio Gomez has done a brilliant job with the fitness side of it.
"We have to tweak a few things from last season. It was a busy schedule, I remember the travelling was a bit crazy. We squeezed a lot in and we suffered a little bit, even though we got away with it in terms of injuries.”
The two-day visit to Colchester Garrison to be put through their paces by the 7th Parachute Regiment Royal Horse Artillery clearly took its toll on some members of the squad: "Whether we have two days in an army barracks remains to be seen because a lot of the players suffered with blisters.
"Colin Healy suffered a lot with blisters and one or two lads had sore ankles for a few days. That was wearing those dodgy boots at the army camp, stuff we have to learn from - it’ll be bare feet next time!”