Nathan explains choice of destination for pre-season camp
Nathan Jones and his Hatters squad had an early start this morning, meeting at Luton Airport at 6.30am for an 8am flight to Hungary for a week-long pre-season training camp.
The Hatters will stay and train at the Hungarian Football Federation’s equivalent of our FA’s national football centre at St George’s Park – the private Globall Football Park & SportHotel.
After overseeing the final gym session of the first full week back in pre-season training on Friday afternoon, Jones explained to lutontown.co.uk why he opted for Budapest rather than more traditional warm-weather bases.
Jones said: “As well as it being a really good place to go and work, at the Hungarian FA headquarters on superb pitches, the climate is a little bit more conducive to pre-season training.
“I’ve been to Spain and Portugal and places like that, and you’re often having to switch the timings of sessions because it’s so hot. There is a bit of a micro-climate going on in Hungary and we can make best use of that.
“The players will be working on their fitness, of course, but we’ll also be working on team shape, pattern of play and be able to keep putting that way we want to play over to them.
“We’ll also take them out into Budapest, all supervised of course, for a bit of downtime. It’s important that they get to see a bit of the culture over there and sample a great European city.
“They won’t be locked up day and night, it won’t be a boot camp. It’s a chance for a real team spirit to be fostered when you’re away for a few days like that.
“It’s not necessarily a case that it’s just the new signings who benefit from that, but also the lads who were here at the end of last season.
“We’re still relatively new to each other, but there is a real good feel to training at the minute and a buzz about the place already.
“A week away will help us strengthen that, I’m sure, and also give us the chance to experience some top-drawer facilities.”