SAINTS now enter a crucial period in pre-season training with the big Premier League kick-off now under a month away.

Mark Hughes has just brought his side back from a two-week tour in China, where Saints mainly focused on fitness and conditioning.

The 3-3 friendly draw against Schalke was purely about getting the players some game time, before Hughes started to focus more on shape and style in the 3-2 win over Jiangsu Suning last Wednesday.

Now the Welshman has got his squad back at Staplewood, where the real work begins ahead of the big kick-off against Burnley at St Mary’s on Sunday, August 11.

"It will be good to get back now," Hughes said. "Obviously, we've done a lot of travelling and we've got more travelling ahead of us, but we'll be able to have some downtime at the weekend, then get back to it on Monday and get back to the training ground with a full week ahead of us before a decent game at the weekend."

Hughes has been pleased with the work in the transfer window so far, with Saints signing four players – Stuart Armstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi, Angus Gunn and Jannik Vestergaard – in a £51m spending spree.

Now, it’s up to the Welshman to sculpt his side with a clear run of training days without a game to really make some progress and hammer home his ideas.

Hughes believes his side are continuing to buy into his ethos and now it’s time to really ramp it up ahead of a trip to Championship side Derby on Saturday in their third pre-season outing.

Saints will follow The Rams game with another trip abroad, this time a bit closer to home as they head to France for a training camp.

The French exchange will conclude with a match against Dijon on Saturday, 28 July, before Saints head back to the South Coast for a St Mary’s double header against Celta Vigo (August 1) and Borussia Monchengladbach.

Hughes is expected to have his whole squad for the French trip, with those who have been at the World Cup coming back from post-season breaks for the hop across the English Channel.

That means Maya Yoshida, Cedric Soares and Jan Bednarek will join the squad later, while Vestergaard, who was in the Denmark squad at the World Cup, will similarly be given time to sort out his move from Germany before linking up with the squad.