Life after promotion: Players face greatest ever battle to adjust following summer like no other

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Rotherham United head into their third Championship campaign in five seasons with six new signings. But arguably their best bit of business was done back in April, when they were still a League One club uncertain of what was to come.

In March, as the country looked to quell the spike of Covid-19 cases, all football was put on pause. While a restart was on the cards, the uncertainty around when that might be put clubs on edge. Rotherham, two points above the play-off places, did not want to take any chances.

Players were given equipment from the club gym, with some even taking whole benches and barbells if they had space. Like other clubs, group and individual Zoom workouts were plentiful, and aerobic work was monitored across the Strava app and the club’s Catapult account.

But to get an edge, the South Yorkshire club decided to get their players expensive Wattbikes. And rather than purchase them outright, they got creative. Through negotiations with various companies, the club were able to “borrow” the bikes and get them sent to those who needed them most. In turn, those players worked with the respective companies to plug them on social media to help the club get more manageable deals.

“We wanted to avoid purchasing the bikes, because we did not know how long we would need them for,” says Adam Pulford, head of sports science at Rotherham. “Also, we don’t have the budget of a Premier League club and couldn’t get one for the whole squad. We were able to get some reduced prices and lease a few bikes.”

In the end, that restart did not come to pass. A vote among League One clubs at the start of June saw the league cancelled and Rotherham keep their automatic promotion spot on the points-per-game weighting. But those intense remote sessions, borrowed weights and flash bikes were not for nothing. “In terms of fitness,” Pulford tells The Independent, “the lads came back to prepare for the new season well ahead of schedule.”

Rotherham are one of 12 promoted teams beginning English football’s 2020/21 league campaign this weekend aiming for survival off the back of a pre-season like no other. At a time when the game’s skewed economics have never looked more brittle, relegation comes at an even greater cost. The challenges these dozen face are not unique, but they are heightened by stepping up to a grander, more unforgiving stage.

You could consider Paul Warne’s side one of the exceptions, desperate as they are to stop their Yo-Yo of relegation-promotion-relegation-promotion. Rotherham’s last competitive match was on 7 March and, with the Championship’s regular season completed on 22 July and play-offs concluded on 4 August, they – along with Coventry City and Wycombe Wanderers – come in much better rested than the other 21 teams in their division.

The downside is that the last “meaningful” touches of a football came just under six months before Saturday’s Carabao Cup match against League Two Salford City, which resulted in defeat on penalties. Restrictions around group training sessions meant the extra time could not be spent working on tactics in a meaningful way.

For a club like West Bromwich Albion, returning to the Premier League after two seasons away, there are no such issues. Their end to the Championship season was far more stressful that it should have been, pushed all the way by Brentford who fell at the final two hurdles, which included failing to beat Barnsley at home on the final day of the season. The result meant a 2-2 draw with Queens Park Rangers was enough to see the Baggies back in the top-tier after a two-year absence.

From that point – 22 July – head coach Slaven Bilic gave the squad three weeks off. Players were encouraged to do what they needed to recharge after months of uncertainty were followed by months of unprecedented intensity. They may have stuttered over the finish line, but after 11 months of graft, it was no less than they deserved.

“After such a long period of checking up on them, we really encouraged them to switch off without input from us,” reveals Matthew Bickley, fitness coach at West Brom. “Given how soon we would get them in for the new season, that was vitally important. You can burn out mentally as well as physically.”

Naturally, the emphasis was on rest. A week before the players returned to training, some light sessions were advised, tailored to each individual, based on how they had fared before the break. That allowed Bilic and the rest of the first-team coaches to focus on matters like shape in transitions on the field sooner than they would in a regular pre-season, even with only five weeks to work with.

“It’s obviously a balancing act with what each player needs,” says Bickley. “Players progress at different rates. But less time away from competitive action meant we are able to expose players to football elements quicker than usual."

That residual match fitness, accordingly to Bickley, is an extra bonus given the similarities in physical output between the Championship and the Premier League, which West Brom had occupied for eight seasons prior to relegation in 2018.

“In terms of fixtures, the Premier League is a little less hectic. And, in terms of total distance covered and high-speed running, they do not differ that much. The difference, of course, is the Premier League exposes you to better, more athletic players, and it’s about dealing with those moments of intensity when they come up. So while you would still do fitness work, introducing ball work sooner is hugely beneficial."

Another aspect to consider is the year-to-year development of players and the expected trends when dealing with young and old. At a club like West Brom, where the squad has been relatively consistent, detailed profiles wedding GPS metrics, playing and injury history give an idea on whether players are coming in and out of peaks.

The expected wisdom across the game at the moment is the sharp turnaround will have the same acceleration on a young player’s evolution, perhaps seen most noticeably in Mason Greenwood’s form after the restart, as it would on an older one’s devolution. West Brom, as an example, look to be on the right side of that ledger.

Of their first-team squad at the time of writing, only six are over 30, of which the oldest is 32-year-old Kamil Grosicki. The permanent signings of Grady Diangana (22) from West Ham and Matheus Pereira (24), who had been on loan from Sporting Lisbon are a welcome injection of established youth. There is a quiet optimism around the club.

By contrast, a club like Plymouth Argyle, promoted from League Two, have been working to make up for lost time. Like Rotherham, they did not need to complete their fixtures and finished third on PPG, having occupied the position with a three-point cushion above the play-off places when the league was paused.

Unlike Rotherham, they were not quite ready for the shutdown. After the EFL confirmed on Thursday 12 March that the weekend’s fixtures would be going ahead, Plymouth were on the road on Friday for their Saturday fixture with Morecambe when an update came through that the league was to be postponed, initially until 4 April.

“We stopped off at a service station,” remembers John Lucas, Argyle’s head of fitness and conditioning. “There was a lot of uncertainty, but we obviously knew the gravity of the events around the world and in the country.” There had been contingency plans in place, which came into effect immediately.

However, one of the challenges for the club was geography. Though their players stay locally during the season, a number have permanent residence up north, which from Plymouth is pretty much everywhere else. When lockdown arrived, most of the squad scattered to different parts of the country.

Another stumbling block was that, unlike Rotherham, their gym and fitness facilities belong to Plymouth Marjon University. While it is a state-of-the-art set-up, including a nationally renowned physiology lab, borrowing equipment was not an option. 

“That was a big challenge,” says Lucas, “and one which was unavoidable really. We didn’t have access to our own facilities like everyone else. A number of players went home straight away to be with family, which was absolutely right. It meant that they had to make use of what they had, which in some cases just boiled down to body-weight exercises and use of open space.

Lucas was able to find fixes where he could. Diets were tailored as much as possible, and new goals set to ensure players remained competitive. Argyle manager Ryan Lowe has instilled a strong work ethic since taking over in July 2019, which had to be maintained during a long period of inactivity.

“That was difficult because during the season we’re working towards targets,” says Lucas. “Whether it’s game-to-game or big picture like automatic promotion and the play-offs. You all work to that schedule as a club: not just those playing, but players coming back from injury as well. As staff and players, you are in control of that. But football drives it.

“When the players returned and with League One to prepare for, the most important thing has been harnessing that. We have a driven group, and now again we have a focus. But it was not easy.”

Things have gone well since. The club were able to schedule a training camp of sorts in Scotland, which included a behind-closed-doors friendly against Rangers. A return to competitive action last Saturday produced a sterling 3-2 win over Championship opposition QPR. By all accounts, the recalibration of ethos and spirit has been successful.

Lucas does anticipate the usual issues of greater fatigue and perhaps more muscle injuries at the start of the season, though. The benefit is the schedule does allow for breathing room now. And having had to work hard to find new ways of preparing players, and with even greater emphasis on recovery, the burden of performance is shared more evenly among all at the club.

“It has been new for everyone involved,” says Lucas, matter-of-factly. “It’s something as a professional you deal with, learn and adapt, and it’s about supporting the players more so than ever. We’ve asked a lot of them over the last year.”

That, in some ways,  is why the last six months have been something of an equaliser. The economics of the game have taken a sizeable hit. Of course, money has been spent in sizeable quantities by those who have it to spend, patching up issues around fitness and quality that the last few months have either highlighted or exacerbated. But for the “have nots” – or rather, the majority – adapting to find new unique edges is the only way.

Even then, how the promoted 12 fare will differ wildly because of their own privileges. As much as preparation will be key to their survival, the scale of that preparation diminishes exponentially the lower down you go. What works for West Brom might work for Rotherham but almost certainly won’t for Argyle – even when considering how they will be affected by coronavirus, which remains a prevalent threat. A positive test result, for example, will have a greater consequence on a squad with less depth.

As such, the best-laid plans may come awry sooner rather than later. And even if not, any worthwhile conclusions can only be drawn with the benefit of hindsight of a league table come May. Nevertheless, for the opening weekend at least, those dozen enter their new leagues with familiar feelings of optimism and trepidation.