Head coach Julen Lopetegui and his coaching staff welcomed their West Ham United players to Rush Green Training Ground for the first day of pre-season on Wednesday.
There were plenty of smiles, handshakes and high fives as the Hammers’ men’s squad assembled for a day of testing and benchmarking. Among them were summer signings Luis Guilherme and Wes Foderingham, along with Flynn Downes, fresh from winning promotion from the EFL Championship with Southampton.
For them and their teammates, it was also their first meeting with Lopetegui and his backroom team of assistant head coach Pablo Sanz, head of performance Óscar Caro, head analyst Juan Vicente Peinado, fitness coach Borja De Alba and technical coach Edu Rubio.
Lopetegui and his coaches arrived at Rush Green at the weekend to start preparations for the 2024/25 campaign, finalise the pre-season schedule and plan for a warm-weather training camp in Austria next week, the Sunshine State Tour to Florida, where his team will take on Premier League rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace, and the Betway Cup visit of La Liga side Celta Vigo to London Stadium.
The Spaniard believes pre-season is a vital period at every football club, as it is a period when a head head coach and his staff can focus fully on introducing philosophies and styles, implementing ideas and innovations and improving physical and mental fitness levels, all away from the intense pressure the season proper brings once it gets underway.
While there will be no points to play for, however, Lopetegui is clear that the hard work done and strong foundations laid over the coming five weeks will put his squad in a strong position come Saturday 17 August, when UEFA Champions League-bound Aston Villa visit London Stadium on the opening weekend of the Premier League.
“First of all, the pre-season is a key moment for us and, of course, we're going to try to take advantage of this time,” the head coach confirmed.
“Always in pre-season the aim is to achieve your best level physically and tactically and to know all around that we will translate to the team. Of course, these kind of pre-season matches help you to put the points across although. Obviously, it is going to be important to have demanding matches in the pre-season to achieve these levels.”
While Lopetegui and his staff will oversee matters at Rush Green, the head coach will also be in almost constant contact with technical director Tim Steidten, consulting over potential recruits to strengthen the squad for the season ahead.
Both men confirmed in their first press conference on Monday that they are seeking players with the ‘right profile’, on and off the pitch, and Lopetegui has backed Steidten to provide him with the players he requires to name a strong squad come that opening-day fixture with Aston Villa in six-and-a-half weeks’ time.
“The strategy is to confront all the important things before the season and to prepare very well the pre-season for me is key,” Lopetegui continued. “This time is to be able to translate our ideas, our way to play, our way to manage and have a clear relationship between us. All these things are very important and the part of a technical director is key to have the best Club possible, to be able have the better players, to manage them to be able to achieve in our aims.
“We’re up against one of the best teams in the league last season. They thoroughly deserved to qualify for the Champions League. They have an extraordinary squad – and their coaching staff (led by head coach and Lopetegui’s fellow Basque Unai Emery) are sensational. It will obviously be a very difficult and demanding game but that’s the same with every game in the Premier League – it’s always hard. We will make sure that we train hard so we are as prepared as we can be for a very difficult start to the season but at the same time it will be so exciting and amazing.
“I feel very happy and responsible for all the objectives we have in front of us. I can’t wait to start working with the lads and get preseason underway.”
