Pulis: Tottenham bonding trip echoes his own team-building methods
Tony Pulis says Tottenham's Marbella camp can help Roberto De Zerbi learn about his new squad, and recalls how bonding trips changed from Blackpool guest houses to Alpine training bases.
Tony Pulis believes Tottenham's team-bonding trip to Marbella made sense given how many new players arrived at the club this summer, with several signings completed late in the transfer window. Writing as a BBC Sport columnist, the former manager said Roberto De Zerbi will have used the warm-weather camp to drill in his principles on team shape and direction, and to assess the personalities in what is close to a new squad.
Pulis said the benefits of such trips extend beyond the training pitch. Away from the grass, a manager can monitor how individuals interact and learn their strengths and weaknesses both on and off the field. He compared the approach to his own pre-season camps with Stoke in Austria, where fitness work was combined with exercises designed to build a sense of family within the dressing room. He added that those trips revealed plenty about his players, good and bad, and that one or two fell short of the character he wanted.
The columnist contrasted current arrangements with his playing days, when pre-season meant three days in Blackpool, sharing beds in a guest house, running on the beach and playing seven-a-side after clearing a local park pitch. Evenings allowed a few beers, with players required to be ready for training at 8am. Pulis said football's drinking culture was widespread in the 1970s and 80s, and that in his early years of management bonding often happened in pubs after games and training.
Pulis also recalled tougher methods from early in his managerial career, including army camps and a Stoke trip to Exmouth featuring cross-country circuits, climbing and underwater swimming in a darkened tunnel, practical team-building tasks and nights on bunk beds with only thin blankets. Later he favoured Irdning in Austria, where his teams stayed in a historic building with pools, gym, spa and a golf course.
Tottenham's trip comes before their Monday night meeting with Coventry. Pulis mentioned the fixture while explaining what De Zerbi could gain from the camp, and he also praised the Champions League match between Manchester City and Paris St-Germain as a throwback full of crosses, shots and goalmouth action, saying City were unlucky not to get anything from it.
Separately, Pulis returned to Manchester City's off-field case, saying the affair has soured the wider game rather than just the Premier League. He questioned why so long passed between the league first finding City had broken its financial rules and the current point, and why Premier League officials continued presenting the club with trophies in the meantime. The column was written for BBC Sport.
