Today, whether it’s pre-season or a winter break, most Premier League clubs who take their players away go first-class and enjoy great hotels, great facilities and wonderful food.
Wherever the team bus goes, it is followed by an even bigger bus with all the non-playing staff on it.
It is very different to my experiences in my early years as a player, when we would be taken to Blackpool for three days’ pre-season training.
Again, the idea was to bring the lads closer together, but that happened in a different way than today’s professionals are used to.
We stayed in a guest house with three-quarter beds that we all shared – that certainly brought us closer together! – then trained on the beach each morning, doing our running sessions on the sand.
Then we played seven-a-side games in the afternoon on a local park pitch, after clearing the dog muck off first.
In the evenings, we were allowed out for a few beers, with no time stipulated for our return – apart from having to be downstairs and ready to hit the beach again at 8am the next morning.
That is where things have changed most of all, right through football, during the past few years. In the 1970s and 80s, there was a massive drinking culture right through the leagues – just listen to the stories that came out of clubs as big as Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal, when they had teams who not only dominated English football but the European game too.
In my early years of management, the bonding I’ve been talking about used to happen right through the season through the lads meeting in pubs after games and after training on week days as well.
Winter breaks were rare and, rather than for a training camp, the only time most players I knew went to Spain was at the end of the season when more alcohol would be consumed.
That was what British players classed as bonding sessions and, as I’ve written about before, even the ones at the top level were much more connected to normal society, rather than living in an eternal bubble.
Now, while they are certainly more aware of the dangers of drinking to excess, as a manager you have to find other ways for them to connect when there are other distractions to contend with.
One item I am very glad my generation was not brought up with is mobile phones. I used to go mad if I walked into a dining room at the training ground or a hotel to see a group of lads looking at their phone and not engaging with each other.
I sometimes think that, as a young player, I had nothing compared to the players of today but, really, we had everything.
The stories, the friendships and the memories of the togetherness I remember from every dressing room during that time still resonate with me and recreating them was always my aim as a manager.
