Saints will today head across the Atlantic as Claude Puel starts to ramp up preparations for his first season in charge of the club.

Saints fly to Baltimore for the first of two overseas trips ahead of the new Premier League campaign, which is little over a month away.

The trip to America is for commercial as well as footballing reasons, with Baltimore chosen specifically as it is the home of Under Armour, the club’s new kit manufacturers.

Saints will visit the company’s headquarters during their trip, which also sees academy coaches delivering clinics to local teams as part of the club’s ambitious programme to expand their presence in developing the game in the USA.

While the trip is significant for many off the field aspects of the club, the focus for Puel and his staff will very much be on the players.

Those who featured in Euro 2016 will not be attending the trip as they are enjoying a short spell of time off before reporting back for pre-season.

However, the rest of the first team squad will be making the journey.

Puel will use the trip as a training camp for his squad, and a chance to observe the players away from the day-to-day normality of Staplewood.

He will also get a chance to see how the players gel together off the pitch as part of the week away.

There will be a low-key friendly at the end of the week, with a behind closed doors match on Friday, July 15.

The club are not placing any significance on the fixture though, which is likely to be against a local under-23 team, and it is rather just a way of starting to move through the gears.

After a week in America, Saints return home and have a few clear days before they jet off again.

This time their flight will not be so long as they move to Holland on Friday, July 22, for what is a significant step up in their preparations for the new season.

While in Holland they will play three friendlies.

The first is against PEC Zwolle on Saturday, July 23, before they face FC Twente on Wednesday, July 27, and round off the trip against FC Groningen on Saturday, July 30.

It is a similar schedule to the Dutch trip Saints took part in last year, clearly influenced by now departed manager Ronald Koeman, whose family are huge figures in the history of FC Groningen.

The decision was made to keep the trip in tact as Saints know what to expect and the Dutch trip stood the players in good stead for last season.

After returning home, Saints have a week before their final friendly, against Athletic Bilabo at St Mary’s on Sunday, August 7, with the big Premier League kick-off coming against Watford on Saturday, August 13.