WHAT PRE-SEASON’S REALLY LIKE FOR A TOP-FLIGHT PLAYER
This summer we shadowed Everton’s MICHAEL KEANE, who reveals all about spinning, science and white-water rafting. . .
THE Premier League returns tomorrow but preparations for the big kick- off started long ago. It raises the question: how does a top-flight footballer get ready for action?
To find out, Sportsmail shadowed Everton and England defender Michael Keane from when he returned to work to the last warmup fixture. He provided a candid insight into how he has brought himself to a peak thanks to — among other things — spin classes, science and white-water rafting...
WEDNESDAY, JULY 10 FINCH FARM, LIVERPOOL
Keane missed the first week of Everton’s camp because he had played international football in June. It meant he did not go on the two-day trip to Kenya, where his team-mates played Kariobangi Sharks in Nairobi. I Had three-and-a-half weeks off after the Nations League. For the first two weeks, I did absolutely nothing. I don’t put on weight easily, so there’s nothing for me to dread about coming back. There will be times I have the odd takeaway. The ultimate treat is a Chinese and it has to be sweet chilli chicken. I like a cake, too... I do like a dessert, to be fair! But I like keeping active and there comes a point in the close season when you pick things up slowly.
I was in Los angeles at first. To get back into it, I did some different things. There is a place called Soul Cycle, which does spinning classes. I also went to a few boxing classes, stuff to get you going. It’s quite hilly there, so you can’t go blasting out runs. after La, I went to Mykonos with my brother, Will, and George Boyd, who I played with at Burnley. There is a special gym called Mykonos Performance and we trained every day for a week — running, bikes, hill sprints, gym work, the lot.
WHAT HAPPENS ON THE FIRST DAY BACK?
TESTS! The strength of your hamstrings, the strength of your groin. You do different exercises and all the numbers come up on machines in the gym. The medical staff compare what they see to where you were at the end of the season and where you were on the first day of last pre-season.
You do everything — stretching, eye tests, blood tests, heart scans. They go through everything to make sure it is all as it should be. It’s a full morning, going from station to station when you get prodded and poked and checked.
HOW DOES IT DIFFER WITH OTHER MANAGERS?
WHEN I came here in 2017, Ronald Koeman had the VO2 max test. You run on a treadmill wearing an oxygen mask and the speed keeps increasing until you can’t run any more. I had a little injury when I first came, so I escaped! Now that is something I would have dreaded.
Saying that, I know what Sean dyche does. He has something called ‘Gaffer day’. You are out for up to three hours, there are no footballs and you just run. and I mean run. He’s got all sorts of drills, one called ‘doggies’ that is essentially a five-man relay. It gets so hard people want to be sick... dyche made sure the banter was flowing, to push you through. I was never sick myself but it was pretty close at times! Under Marco Silva, 95 per cent of the session is with a football. don’t get me wrong, it’s still hard, but it is so much more enjoyable.
TUESDAY, JULY 16 VERBIER, SWITZERLAND
The next phase of Everton’s preparation involves a week at altitude in the Alps. Some new signings — Andre Gomes and Fabian Delph — have now joined the group and Keane has had his first game minutes of the summer, in a 0-0 draw with Sion. TO GET to where we train from our hotel, you need to take a cable car — it certainly brightens up the morning compared to the M56 and
the Runcorn Bridge! We do double sessions, as would have been the case at Finch Farm, but it feels so much harder given how high up we are.
One day, for a bit of fun, me, Theo Walcott, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Jordan Pickford and Mason Holgate decided to go for a walk up Le Mont Fort. The scenery at the top was incredible but when we climbed the final few steps, we were all blowing like mad. It didn’t feel like fun then!
You feel tight in your muscles after training, but it’s completely normal. The good thing about training in the mountains was having the river on hand... some of the lads jumped straight in rather than heading back for ice baths and the pool. Personally? I’ll take the pool.
The first game was good. I had a goal disallowed — harshly! — for offside but the clean sheet was the most important thing. You might say it’s only a friendly, but you set standards. You treat everything as if it is a Premier League game and you take pride in a clean sheet.
HOW CRUCIAL ARE THESE WEEKS IN BUILDING RAPPORT IN THE SQUAD?
EVERYONE kept in touch over the summer. We have a WhatsApp group and Andre, thankfully, never left! We didn’t pester him when he was making his final decision, but we were always hopeful he’d sign after his year on loan. He’s a top player and it’s great he’s here.
It was the same with Delphy. We had seen the news linking him to us and I was hoping it would happen, as I know from being with him at England that he’s a top player. He arrived late on Monday night, so it must have been quite an experience having breakfast with 20 lads wanting to speak to you. I know some teams have a night out when they are on tour, but we will do that once all our signings are in. We talk about what we want to achieve.
The manager has brought it up in the past — where do you want to be? Where can you go? We want to reach our goals.
SO, WHAT DID YOU DO FOR TEAM BONDING?
WHITE-WATER rafting in the Torrent de Cotterg river! It was a right laugh. There were four boats, 10 in each. The manager and his football staff won the race. We were out for 45 minutes to an hour. Nobody tried to sink them!
THURSDAY, JULY 25 FINCH FARM, LIVERPOOL
An unexpected setback. The night before at Wigan, in a game that finished 0-0, Keane had been due to play 45 minutes. An aerial collision with striker Lee Evans had drastic consequences that totally altered his programme. I WAS elbowed and needed nine stitches above my right eye. I had to come off straight away.
Very frustrating. It stopped me doing contact training for four days and meant missing games against Sevilla and Mainz, which was so annoying. You might not think missing 60 or 90 minutes is a big deal but it makes a difference.
All you can do in those circumstances is run. It means you have to play catch-up. It wasn’t a great challenge. A little interruption at this point is not ideal.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 3 BREMEN, GERMANY
Everton draw 0-0 in their last match against Werder Bremen. A lack of goals — just three — has been a theme for Silva’s squad, who know the Italy striker Moise Kean is about to arrive for £30million. They now have clarity about what must be done before they head to Selhurst Park for the opening game. IN terms of being physically ready, this game was massive. It was also important to work on my partnership with Yerry Mina, who came last summer from Barcelona. His English is improving. He knows the basics now. Check your shoulder, move up... little things like that.
He is trying to speak to me more now, to be fair to him. It will develop. Will I learn Spanish? I hadn’t thought about it, but of course I would, if it helped. I’d be willing to say he would learn Mancunian quicker than I would get the hang of Spanish! He’s a bright lad and he is doing well.
Yerry wants to improve, but we all do. We know we need to score more goals — nobody needs to tell us that. We are turning down too many opportunities to shoot, but you get these things out of the way in pre-season. We showed at times how good we can be, but we need consistency. We want to break into the top six, then target a cup run. There is no reason why we can’t go all the way in one of the cups. Other clubs have done it, so why can’t we? It has been too long since this club won a trophy. Far too long.
Pre- season is a fresh start for us all. We are ready to go again.