YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth details what the team have been up to at their training camp in Germany this summer
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00:00I think what would surprise a lot of people is just how relaxed it is, you know, they are all very very comfortable in each other's company, they are, they're just here to work, really, and just kind of in between the work they're wandering around chatting to one another and being footballers being very competitive in table tennis or whatever as cards that they're, they've got, apparently there's a notebook in which scores are kept for various games.
00:29And it's a serious piece of business. You've obviously had Ethan Ampadu named officially the captain this week, and he is one of the more vocal members of the travelling party, you know, whenever poor Charlie Crewe or James De Beere were doing their interviews, Ampadu was interjecting loudly from the side.
00:48Joe Rodon's another one who, I think today when he was lying down during that recovery session, that might have been the only time I've seen him where he hasn't been talking or yelling at someone.
01:00Been really interested in watching them train, because whilst we say it's relaxed, when they play against each other, it is far from relaxed. Something I asked Dan James about, because people are going through each other now and again, players are getting wiped out.
01:17Farka's kind of appealing for Cam, Rodon is contesting everything, he's accusing Pirou of diving, Ampadu is going after the coach who's refereeing because he hasn't got a handball. And players are holding each other to account, you know, when passes don't get played when they should, when runs are made and they're not spotted.
01:33So whilst it's relaxed, it's very, very intense when they're playing football. And what was great about the game was that we were sat on these kind of fancy, like fancy garden, wicker garden furniture right by the side of the pitch.
01:47So you could hear absolutely everything being said and Rodon does not stop talking to his teammates about where they need to be, where the ball needs to go, if it's time to like stop and calm down, if it needs to go left, if somebody needs to go wider, if Georgie needs to drop back in to cover for someone at a defensive throw in.
02:05He just doesn't stop talking. So they have got leaders and they've got voices on the pitch because it has been said previously that people thought this was a quiet team. Not so sure that's the case.