Lewin pleased with West Ham’s pre-season plans

Gary Lewin believes that West Ham have got their pre-season plans just right ahead of the new season.
The incoming head of medical services is pleased that the club are not jetting around the world and chasing marketing opportunities, rather focusing on the season ahead.

The Hammers are set to go to Austria for a training camp before playing three games ahead of the new season.

Slaven Bilic’s side face Bundesliga side Werder Bremen twice in Germany before playing Manchester City in Iceland.

Lewin said: “Over the last few years it has become common for teams to travel around the world for pre-season tours and matches that have a commercial element to them and so, from my point of view, it was fantastic to come here and see that we are going to Austria and Germany for purely fitness and football.

“It means that I will have time to really get to know the players, and we can have that real consistency of training. We’re based in one place on each trip, there isn’t much travelling, and everything is organised for the benefit of the players.”

Picture: Getty

For the last two years the club have been involved in the Europa League but this season they are able to focus on the start of the season on August 12.

He added: “For the last two summers, the club have had early competitive football in the Europa League, and that can be tough. It’s not so much the early start, but more the unknown aspect of it when you are planning – who are we playing, where are we travelling. That can make it difficult to plan individual programmes for players who may be at different levels of fitness and conditioning.

“This year we can set in stone what we are doing, and have a pre-conceived plan all the way through to August 12. We can all be on the same page, with the same levels of fitness and, hopefully, have everyone relatively injury-free and ready to go.”