Campbell hits out over early start for Premier Sports Cup

Arbroath assistant manager Ian Campbell has blasted the July 9 kick-off date of the Premier Sports Cup as “crazy”.

The Lichties took the Championship by storm last season and will look for a repeat in the next campaign.

However, Arbroath, one of two part-time clubs in the league, train twice a week and will have just a handful of sessions before competitive football kicks off all over again.

Campbell, who is instrumental in his side’s pre-season work, has hit out at the SPFL for the decision to commence the Premier Sports Cup games so early in July, less than two months from their final game.

League Cup rules state clubs can only play registered players and, with a small squad, there is little room for rotation.

The Arbroath No 2 believes having such a short break could be dangerous for players who have not fully recovered from the exertions of the last season.

“The close and pre-season is an issue,” he told Courier Sport.

“It’s changed days now. In the past, we would have had about 15 sessions to get people fit. Now we have four or five.

“We used to have a pre-season of up to nine weeks. Now it’s three weeks. We have to give the players a rest.

“The cup starting on July 9 is crazy, in my view.

We won’t get match fit until about the second week (of games).

“We used to have big games in pre-season, likes of Dundee United and Aberdeen. Now, we don’t take these games because there is a danger to the players. If we play them early, we run the risk of strains which could affect them all season.”

Despite his frustrations, Campbell has praised his players for their willingness to stay in shape over their short break. He also hailed the work of Gayfield sports scientist Kevin Milne and physio Craig Reynolds, who help produce individually designed “homework” programmes for each player.

“My background is in physical education and physiology; I’ve been doing it for 30 years,” Campbell said.

“Kevin and Craig help enormously and take responsibility for getting these boys fit and assessing them. Their hydration levels, fat levels are all taken regularly.

“On June 4, we give out individually designed programmes and we assess them on Strava. They have to do these themselves before our first session on June 13.

“Nowadays they are so professional. The days of players going off drinking are old hat.

“These guys are model professionals; you just need to look at them to see how fit they are.

“They wouldn’t get back into our team if they didn’t get back to the standard we aspire too.”

Arbroath assistant manager Ian Campbell.