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Hurst: Town Off to Spain in Pre-Season - Ipswich Town News

New Blues boss Paul Hurst has confirmed that the squad will spend a week in Spain as part of their pre-season preparations.

Hurst has been discussing taking the squad to a warm weather training camp with owner Marcus Evans despite the Carton House Hotel in Ireland, where former boss Mick McCarthy took the Blues each summer, having already been booked.

As reported a fortnight ago, a trip to Portugal, where Hurst took his Shrewsbury squad last summer, was investigated before being ruled out with Spain looked at as the alternative.

Town have confirmed that there are no plans to play a friendly during the camp, which we understand is in the Alicante area, although there was previously a suggestion that a behind-closed-doors match against another club also training in the area might be possible.

"The lads are in today and tomorrow for some testing and then we start everyone together on Monday,” Hurst told The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast on talkSPORT (from 7mins 28secs) when asked about pre-season.

"We’ve got six days straight, then a day off and then we’re off to Spain for a week where we’ll get some really hard training into their legs.

"Then the games will start after that. We’ve got the MK Dons, Barnet, but the showpiece game is the West Ham game at home prior to the season kicking off.

"Some good games, different levels, but for me it’s clearly about getting to know the players and making them understand what our expectations are and how we want to play.”

A list of the Blues' pre-season matches confirmed so far can be found here.

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