Football: Manchester United’s Darren Fletcher believes in training
Manchester United midfielder, Darren Fletcher, claimed that the four day rigorous training in Chicago would help the player in the long run. Manchester United are currently on a pre-season tour in USA, where they are to play various oppositions, and then come back fully focused on winning the league title for a record 19th time.
Fletcher relishes the prospect of facing his first pre-season match against Glasgow Celtics, at the Rogers stadium, and has been training hard for the match. The squad has already completed a 10 day pre-season training and Fletcher admitted that being Scottish, he found the match against the Celtics “interesting”.
He added that training has been pretty difficult and gave all the players some new techniques to learn. He added that the hard work may pay off and help the players when they play the new season in Premier League. He claimed that although Manchester itself had hot weather, the humidity and the heat at Chicago really made things difficult. The heat combined with the rigorous training doesn’t sit too well, and Fletcher believed that the players had to work extra owing to the hot and humid conditions.
"It was hot enough in Manchester but the heat and humidity in Chicago was something else. It takes a little bit more out of you in training. He however was happy with the preparation and exclaimed that it was good to visit Chicago. Chicago experienced some bad weather conditions, including thunderstorms and heavy rainfall. The poor conditions affected United's travel schedule and the team were forced to wait for the weather to clear in order to leave the city.
Manchester United Manager Sir Alex Ferguson, however, left early to attend a dinner in Toronto, and was therefore not affected by the conditions. Although Assistant manager Mike Phelan was to chair the press conference owing to Ferguson’s absence, it was Fletcher who seen to chair the press conference.
Fletcher believed that the manager would most probably use most of his 22 players, as this was their first match. Rotating the squad is important as it’s useful to assess the player’s performances. Also, most of the players are coming from a post season rest, and may or may not be accustomed to playing for a full 90 minutes. It is therefore advisable to take things slow, and slowly build up the momentum and stamina needed to play for the full ninety minutes, which makes squad rotation ever so important.
He expected that each player may get a maximum of 60 minutes on the field, and anticipated a lot of changes in the game. Most probably, all the players will play some part of the game. Darren Fletcher is one of the many examples of home grown players Manchester United have created. He aims to end up like his idols Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, who all have had long careers at United. Giggs has played over 20 years of football at United, and may just retire after this season.
Scholes on the other hand, has played over 16 years, and believes he still has something left in his tank for one more season after the current one. When asked by Fletcher, as to who was the best player he played with, he simply replied Paul Scholes. Fletcher has already played 10 years at the club, and the desire and hunger to play for the Red Devils everyday keeps the player going.
He feared the day when he would have to hang up his boots, and would want to spend the maximum time at United. He has already made 255 appearances for the club, scoring 18 goals. He plays in the heart of the midfield at United, and has given some brilliant performances for Manchester United.
Manchester United fans would be hoping that in the coming seasons, Fletcher would continue his impressive run of form, and perhaps establish himself as a pillar like his role models, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs.
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