Once you have strolled through the state-of-the-art spa resort and on past a gym to your left and a swimming pool to your right, you reach your destination: a pristine, full-sized football pitch, with lush green grass segregated into sections by neat rows of cones.
Players in all-black kits chat among themselves as they pull on their boots before the session starts
The sights and sounds provide a quintessential pre-season setting, which is precisely the point.
i is at the Professional Footballers’ Association training camp in Leicestershire where 30 out-of-contract players are being put through their paces by PFA-registered coaches and fitness specialists from data gurus P3RFORM in the build-up to the 2024-25 season.
It is the midway point of an innovative 10-week camp – a supersized version of a successful two-week pilot that was rolled out last summer – that began at the end of June and will run until the end of August.
With an estimated 600 players in English football released each summer, and demand already outstripping supply – there are over 70 applicants for around 30 spots on the week of i‘s visit – further expansion seems inevitable in 2025.
The PFA’s primary aim for the pre-season camp is relatively simple: to provide players with the facilities and assistance they need to maintain their physical and mental sharpness in the off-season in view of earning a new deal at a new club.
Additional guidance on post-playing career options, including information on the PFA’s business school, is offered but not mandatory. According to one member of staff, though, plenty attendees have shown an interest.
Numerous people that i spoke to throughout the day describe the camp as a “no-brainer” for unattached players, but it is still a revolutionary concept that has taken years to come to fruition.
Collaboration between PFA staff and the organisation’s players’ members board, which includes Leicester‘s Premier League title-winning captain Wes Morgan and Manchester United goalkeeper Tom Heaton, helped the idea become a reality. Both male and female PFA members were invited to register for the camp.
Essentially, it is a scheme created for players by players. Every professional, from the Premier League to League Two, will know of teammates who have been released at the end of their contracts. It can be a demoralising period for those who are not snapped up by another club quickly, stripping players of their identity and sense of worth. This is a way of keeping them engaged in the game.
“Players are most vulnerable when they are out of contract, and every summer players are out of contract,” says Jason Lee, the former Nottingham Forest striker who has been the PFA’s senior equalities education executive for over a decade.
“There’s nothing worse than training on your own, mentally it is quite gruelling. You can do it but there’s only so much you can do on your own. You need to be training with other players. Being isolated is not a good feeling.”
The camps help to galvanise that sense of purpose by placing players in a competitive environment that they feel familiar and comfortable with.
Each one lasts for four days a week, running from Monday to Thursday. Five two-hour training blocks are squeezed in during the first three days, including punishing double sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, with an 11-a-side game held on Thursday before the players check out. Matches against EFL clubs are also in the pipeline.
There is time allocated in the schedule for strength and conditioning coaching in the gym and recovery sessions in the pool and each player receives a “Performance Passport” at the end of the week, detailing their physical data from across the week. A buffet-style lunch is held in the canteen at midday every day serving up typical staples of pasta, chicken breast, and salads.
“The clubs expect you to come in good to go,” Lee says. “They’re not going to wait for you to get up to speed. You’re out of contract at the end of the day, you’ve got something to prove.
“If you’re a scout or an agent worth your salt you will know what’s going on and who is here. We’ve got some very good players who played a lot of games so it’s not the CV that they’re going to be querying, it’s what sort of shape they are in.”
It is club-like by design. The players train as individuals but as part of a collective. Shared ambition fosters a sense of camaraderie, among friends reunited and former foes. Some have even taken to referring to their temporary team as “PFA FC”.
“We have tried to create that culture and that environment now that feels like a club environment,” Lee says.
The group contains players who have been at the camp for all five weeks and others who are newer arrivals.
A couple of faces are instantly recognisable. Ciaran Clark, a 36-cap Ireland international and veteran of over 200 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa and Newcastle United, is plugging gaps in midfield. His former teammate at St James’ Park, Dwight Gayle, whose name is still forbidden in parts of Liverpool for his role in Chrystanbull, looks as sharp as ever in the vicinity of the penalty box.
Others with top-flight experience are also in attendance. Michael Hector, a Chelsea signing in Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Stamford Bridge, is busy making last-ditch interceptions in defence. Romaine Sawyers, the silky playmaker who graced the Premier League with West Bromwich Albion just three years ago, is constantly on the swivel. Sam Clucas, the former Hull City, Stoke City and Swansea City utility man, trains separately from the group as part of his rehabilitation from injury.
It is an eclectic ensemble, encompassing players well-known to fans of clubs from each of England’s top four divisions. Most, although not all, are in the second halves of their careers. Some were let go by their former employers, some moved on of their own accord. But each one of them is here for the same reason.
“People are at different stages of their career, there are older lads and younger lads but everyone’s still looking for that same goal to get fit, stay fit, and find a club,” Clark tells i.
“You can see how much it helps the lads. It’s massive really, physically and mentally. Being around the lads and the coaches, getting your training sessions in, eating together. It’s all the lads know really. It’s what they’ve grown up doing like myself and when that stops it’s kind of like ‘Well, what do I do now?’ Going to the gym on your own is not the same. If it wasn’t for the PFA I think a lot of people would be in tough situations.”
Clark will turn 35 in September and his presence at the camp indicates his desire to continue playing. He admits that there have been “bits of interest, but nothing concrete” and has adopted a philosophical outlook on his future. “I’m just going to enjoy this as much as I can and take it as it comes.”
For others, the need to find a new club is more pressing, especially now that the new EFL season is less than three weeks away.
Fankaty Dabo spent 12 years on the books at Chelsea, represented England at youth level, played for Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie and featured prominently for Coventry City in the Championship.
The versatile defender has enjoyed a solid career in the game but has become renowned for two defining moments over the past 15 months that he’d rather forget than any of the many positives that came before them. The first was a decisive penalty miss in the 2023 Championship play-Off final for Coventry against Luton; the second was when Troy Deeney scathingly criticised him during the ex-Watford striker’s shortlived spell as Forest Green Rovers manager last season.
“It seems to always be top of the conversation when people speak to me, but I just try to not give energy to it because it’s done,” he tells i of Deeney’s infamous dressing down. “I didn’t have the best season last year. So if I’m honest with myself, maybe that’s the reason [I’m here].”
Despite those high-profile setbacks, it is clear that Dabo is an affable character who is popular among the group. “We need to talk about the service,” he says, semi-jokingly, semi-seriously, as his teammates gently rib him after an unsuccessful shooting drill. In his defence, he scored a couple of screamers on his previous go.
But behind the cheerful, laid-back demeanour lies a steeliness and a determination to prove people wrong. He admits to feeling frustrated at not having a club at this stage of pre-season and to feeling written off by some at the age of 28.
“I’m sure as footballers we like to look at ourselves and believe in our ability and feel like we don’t need things like this when in reality we actually do,” he says. “The first thing is putting your pride aside and going ‘You know what, I need to come and work in a team environment,’ and it’s good.
“It’s very important for me because I find running alone tough. I’ve never had to put on my trainers and go to a track so to do it now would be a shock. Getting to work with top, top players and competing against each other for the next contract is proper because no one wants to lose.”
Like Clark, Dabo has received enquiries but “nothing concrete” from clubs in recent weeks. “I’m going to give my agent a call, maybe he needs to work a bit harder!” he quips at the end of our conversation as the players head in for lunch.
Milan Lalkovic is in a similar position. A former teenage prodigy and Football Manager cult hero, Lalkvoic joined Chelsea as a 15-year-old from MSK Kosice in his native Slovakia but left seven years later without playing a first-team game for the club. He has plenty of experience of English football, enjoying a fruitful period at Walsall across two spells along with stints at Barnsley and Portsmouth.
Now 31, Lalkovic has had a nomadic career that has taken him to Scotland, the Czech Republic and most recently Greece’s second tier, but family circumstances and a desire to play at a higher level saw him join the pre-season camp in week one. He seems to be friends with everyone, from the staff to the players, earning the nickname “Magic Man” on account of his tricks and skills.
One coach points out to Lalkovic that he is skipping his first session in five weeks as he stands on the sideline to talk to i. He is playing as a trialist in a friendly later in the evening and doesn’t want to risk getting injured.
“It’s not easy but you have to stay positive, you know what I mean?” he says of being without a club.
“What’s the point in worrying about something that you can’t control? Do what you need to do. Work hard and hopefully, the chance comes.”
It is easy to assume that Lalkovic’s career is a typical tale of potential being squandered but injuries have contributed considerably to him not scaling the heights he expected to. He is confident that he has overcome the worst of it now, in part due to the rigorous training sessions put on at the pre-season camp.
“I was ticking over anyway but I feel 100 per cent better now because there’s been a lot of training. I think the first week I did 36km [of running] and we do 30km all the time because we do double sessions. It’s very hard, eight km per training session sometimes.
“I grew up a lot because of the injuries, and I had to look after myself a bit more. I started doing things that got me to Chelsea. Working hard, taking care of myself properly, doing the right things for my body because it’s very important.
“When I speak to some of the younger players here it’s good to give them this knowledge because football doesn’t wait for you. There’s not really time to make mistakes. If you’re from a Premier League academy you have talent but the difference is the mentality.”
Lalkovic will hope to become the latest success story to spring from the training camp. Seven players have signed contracts with professional clubs so far.
Goalkeeper Joe Wildsmith is the most high-profile having joined West Brom in the Championship after being surprisingly let go by Derby County where he made 40 starts in a League One promotion-winning campaign.
One-year deals are widespread in the lower divisions, but striker Omar Bogle bucked that trend by securing a two-year deal with League Two Crewe Alexandra.
“That’s what you want, proof in the pudding,” Lee says. “They need to be picked up. I know for a fact having spoken to them that they’ve benefited from being here and have been in good shape so that when they’ve gone in, they’ve not let themselves down.”
Players without clubs are at risk of being forgotten about and left behind, destined to slip out of a game they have dedicated their lives to. The PFA is actively looking to change that by providing a platform for those in that position to showcase their talent and kickstart their careers. Their pre-season push is already making a big difference.
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