Pre-season tour diary from Southampton's training session in Turkey

A training session and interviews with manager Russell Martin and new signings lay ahead, as well as a chance to meet the new top brass at the club.

Thursday did bring a few minor hitches involved a very late night/early morning arrival and changes of plans to venues for both Friday and Saturday’s events.

The Echo’s pre-season tour coverage is supported by Grosvenor Casino

Going into Friday, I was confident there could be no further complications…

Friday, July 14 7AM

Thanks to Goztepe’s Gursel Aksel Stadium no longer being available for the weekend due to extreme heat, it was a 40-minute taxi journey to reach the new facility.

Without the hard work of many on Thursday Saints could have ended up without even having a game on Saturday - so it is a more than satisfactory conclusion. 

Training was to be hosted at Goztepe’s sports complex in Urla, accessed via a beautiful coastal stretch of the Turkish motorway.

I hopped into the yellow taxi and after a few minutes of attempting to find a slot for my seatbelt, I was told one does not exist.

The next 40 minutes consisted of me routinely hitting my head on the roof as we flew over various speed bumps surely over the limit, while the driver updated his friends on Snapchat.

Against what felt like all the odds, I did make it to the training ground and even ahead of the Saints players – who arrived shortly after.

Training was not due to start for about another hour but a number of big names began to arrive. Sport Republic trio Rasmus Ankersen, Dragan Solak and Henrik Kraft were among the first.

After catching up with the Saints communication team and commercial officers whom I already share a good relationship with from due to our work in England, there was time for new faces.

While Russell Martin and his staff set up on the training pitch, I had a brief meeting and handshake with director of football Jason Wilcox – although he was understandably rushing around.

New CEO Phil Parsons, who began his work at the start of this month after joining from Dyson after a vigorous recruitment process with club chairman Kraft, was very warm and welcoming.

A fascinating and enjoyable conversation with him, while players did their activation and warm up in another room, took us into the beginning of the training session.

9:45AM

It was a lot of fun to view the players training up close and it is a shame the open session was not able to go ahead as I’m sure supporters would have enjoyed it.

Martin was as you would expect – it was very clear, his demand for “control” on the ball and his distaste for “chaos”.

He was firm with his delivery of those principles too. At one point, the training ground fell silent as he informed one group of the players of his displeasure at a brief slip in the on-the-ball standard.

His assistant coach, Matt Gill, was the most vocal coach on the Goztepe surface – he spoke with club media after Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat to Benfica and is well-involved.

The session itself became competitive – at one point, after an hour in the sun, two players, who I won’t name for obvious reasons, had a very verbal disagreement.

Martin wants to see reactions from his players when things are not going well but crucially when things are going right, too. The level was good and the players were on their knees by the end.

11:30AM 

It was time for some interviews and the initial plan was to chat with new signing Ryan Manning first, followed by Shea Charles.

The Republic of Ireland international, however, felt some tightness and had to have some physio – he will be fine for today’s game with Goztepe, though.

As a result, Charles came out and it was good to chat with the former Man City youngster – he’s settling in well, he reassured me.

I then spoke with manager Martin and the first thing he said to me was: “How was your dinner on Tuesday?”

By chance, I had bumped into Martin while he was on the phone in Ocean Village this week. Unfortunately for my partner, we didn’t make it to dinner that night thanks to the surprise announcement of Manning meaning I had to shoot off…

Ankersen was chatting with scouts outside the building as we passed on our way to the staff coach – Saints kindly welcomed me on to save another taxi journey and after “nearly leaving the CEO behind”, we got under way.

Supporters can take confidence in there being a genuine positive culture around the club at the moment. There is a clear mission this season which helps with clarity.

The leadership staff are all enjoying working with each other and Martin is the same – there is even the suggestion some players who initially wanted to leave could be changing their minds.