Argyle in the Alps | Austria Blog 1
As Argyle's pre-season camp continues in Austria, Rob McNichol provides the lowdown from a busy couple of days in the shadow of the Alps.
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Nine years ago, almost exactly, I was in the east of the Netherlands, trying to explain to Paul Wotton that I couldn’t ride a bike. Not the easiest conversation I have ever had, to be fair.
The Argyle living legend then forced – sorry, encouraged – me to get on a bicycle for the first time since I was about three, and I tottered around a Dutch car park like a Friday night drunk, before crashing to the deck. Wotton, and the other coaches who had by now arrived, chuckled, and cycled off into the town, a mile or two away. I walked, and met them later.
That full story featured in my first diary entry from Delden, in 2016 – read it here, if you wish – and it has stayed with me since.
So much so that, last summer, I even signed up for a Cycling for Beginners one-day course. I had just turned 40; call it my own version of a crisis, if you wish.
As it turned out, it was a day for people who had cycled when they were younger and, in later years, now they have retired, want to take it up again. So they whizzed around a little lawn in Newton Abbot, while I worked on my becycled clown act.
‘You can’t ride at all?’ said the well-meaning, but slightly exasperated, woman in charge. They tried to help me, but I was a lost cause. I continued my pattern of a surge of belief, an attempt at riding, actually thinking I could do it, then falling over. Then the sixth-form college next door went on their lunch break, could see me through the chain-link fence, and so I wheeled my way to my beloved car, and have been near nothing with two too few wheels ever since.
Fast forward – it was Monday, 7 July, after a long old commute from Plymouth to Mils, the small town just outside Innsbruck where we are staying. Lunch was taken, and then with a training session on the horizon, the call was for a nice little bike ride to travel the 4km or so from hotel to training pitch.
Ah.
And so it was, as we headed to the home of FC Volders – a cracking couple of pitches, with warm-up area, undercover gym, and so on – the playing squad and various ancillary members of the support teams cycled their way to training.
And I went in the back of the kit van.
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I am naturally thinking back to Delden, as they were the three previous overseas pre-season tours I took part in. I left Argyle in October 2018, then returned in July 2022, and have been back ever since.
There are 46 people on this trip. Other than me, just two of those spent any time in Delden from 2016-18. One is Kevin Nancekivell, who came for the last of the trio of Dutch sojourns. The other, who was at all three as a player, is David Fox.
It is, in some ways, odd to have Foxy back in his new role. I’m used to him as a player, and then latterly as an occasional co-commentator on Argyle TV, but he has slotted in perfectly as Head of Football Operations.
He is only a few months older than me, and I always felt we got on well during his time as a player. We stayed in touch, and I was elated when I heard he was returning, and not just because I like him as a person. The positive qualities he has – hard work, empathy and calmness, not to mention a great football brain – are bound to stand him, and indeed the football club, in good stead.
Clearly, in the seven years since our last trip to the Netherlands, there is going to be a churn of new faces. That’s natural in most lines of work, and particularly football. It is thrown into starker contrast when I think about the turnover since I came back three years ago.
Of the 46 people here, I think just five were full-time employees when I returned. Three are staff, and two are players – Joe Edwards and Brendan Galloway. Bali Mumba joined on loan just a couple of weeks after my arrival.
We are probably no more notable as a club for this than anyone else, but it brings into the focus a need for trips like this. A large number of new players need to be integrated, and while the training sessions from Tom Cleverley and his staff are very important – and the coaching team are new too, let’s not forget – it feels like everyone under one roof, doing everything together, is the key.
There has been the usual round of initiation songs, at meal times. As usual, I believe in the sanctity of that, so absolutely no individual details from me, but let’s say the standard has been varied. There are enough new players, and non-playing staff, that the singing sessions are being staggered through the week. Fair play to the ones volunteering to get it out of the way, especially the younger members of the party.
Central to this - the conductor, if you will – is Conor Hazard. It’s great to see Conor here on the trip. He unfortunately picked up an injury on international duty with Northern Ireland, but has come out with us, and is continuing his rehab under the watchful eyes of Gareth Law and Alex Kay, as is Zak Baker.
Steadily, from what I can tell, Conor has become a real central figure in the group. I like that in a goalkeeper. They should have a voice, and stand out in the gang. For Conor, his emergence, especially after Michael Cooper’s departure, and becoming clear number one during last season, has been the making of him.
Certainly, from our media perspective, he was a class act when called upon a lot during the hoopla of the Brentford/Liverpool/Manchester City cup run, and speaks with a natural, likeable clarity. With a few players who had tenure in the dressing room departing this summer, Conor seems to have organically climbed the totem pole.
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While I believe it is unfair to get into specific initiation songs, I will comment on a different kind of initiation: that of new players getting used to travel being a big part of being a Plymouth Argyle player. This was a long old poke, as they used to say, to get here.
It started from Plymouth to London, on Sunday evening. Then, the joys of an early morning at the airport were compounded by the lengthy and protracted efforts to get a couple of dozen extra bags, of decidedly odd shapes and sizes, onto the plane. “Did you pack this bag of footballs yourself, sir?” asked no-one, actually, but the looks on the faces of ground crewswere priceless at tactics boards, fitness equipment and other items getting loaded on.
A pleasingly uneventful flight to Munich was followed by a two-and-a-half-hour coach journey, which some understandably took a nap on, but they would have missed out firstly on the sight of Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena as we exited the city, and then the soaring beauty of the Nordkette range of the Karwendel mountains, as we arrived at our version of basecamp.
Mountains around us soar to around 2,500 metres (around 8,000 feet). Even in our position at the foot of the valley, we are still 571m (1,873ft) above sea level. It really is stunning.
We understand that, for those of you back in Devon, the weather is decidedly pleasant. It’s rubbish, here. That said, for players working hard on the field, they are probably happier, at least when training, with cooler and rainy than steamingly hot. Tim, our local liaison here in Austria, tells us it was 38 degrees two weeks ago. Strewth.
The rain got heavy during Tuesday’s afternoon session, but abated by the evening, and when the low cloud drifted away down the Inn Valley, we saw snow-capped mountain tops around our panorama. NOW, we’re in the Alps, baby.
The lads had a decent enough workout on Monday, after arrival, following the long journey, but on Tuesday they got really stuck in, with a double session full of patterns of play and instructions of what will be asked of them in the coming months. The vibe was competitive, spirited, and upbeat. A few tackles containing plenty of juice, but nothing crossing the line.
There is a dichotomy at this time of the season. Players are integrating and getting on with their team-mates, but trying to stand out because, in under a month, when the first teamsheet is delivered, ahead of the home game with Barnsley, they want to be in that first 11.
The Barnsley game will begin a season that, more so than in a while, feels like a reset. A chance to reinvigorate, to look ahead with freshness. We have so many new players I am excited for you all to see up close in the friendlies, and then in the season. Watching them in person at training has been a joy.
It is almost time for them, metaphorically (unlike me, literally) to saddle up, go through the gears and drive for the line.
And here’s me - re: cycling material - recycling material. Enough of me peddling the same old nonsense. It’s time for another training session. I must take my seat for the journey.
Next to the cones, I think, this time. Off we go…
