BBC Sport columnist Tony Pulis looks at Tottenham's team-bonding trip to Marbella and what it can achieve for Roberto de Zerbi and his largely new squad. With a busy start to the season and several late signings, De Zerbi has used the warm-weather camp in southern Spain to drill his principles on team shape and direction, while also observing the different personalities within the group away from the training pitch.
Pulis recalls taking his own Stoke teams to Austria for pre-season, where extreme fitness tests built determination and helped the squad through tough early periods in their Premier League campaigns. He says these trips were about more than fitness, giving him a chance to see how players bonded on the training pitch and at mealtimes, and to judge who had the character the group needed.
He contrasts modern squads, who stay in first-class hotels and travel with an even larger bus of non-playing staff, with his own early career. As a young player, the team went to Blackpool for three days of pre-season, sharing beds in a guest house, running on the sand, playing seven-a-side on a local park pitch and going out for a few beers in the evenings.
Pulis argues the biggest change in football has been in drinking culture. He points to the 1970s and 80s, when heavy drinking was common across the leagues, including at clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal. Today, he suggests, the approach to team bonding is far more professional, though the goal of building a close-knit dressing room remains the same.
Source: BBC Sport Football · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing