Paul Hartley has said he has taken the lessons learned at Celtic under present Scotland boss Gordon Strachan into his own management career which means that the Dundee players can expect a whole lot of hard graft when they report back for pre-season.
Hartley’s new-look squad will be put through their paces in the City of Discovery before departing for a week-long training camp in Hungary next Thursday.
While the players including the eight new summer recruits will be working with the ball from the start, the Dens boss has warned that he will be looking for them to attain the highest levels of fitness possible as the Dark Blues prepare for their return to the top tier of Scottish football.
When asked what does a Paul Hartley pre-season involve, he swiftly replied: “Hard work. Everyone will report back on Thursday.
“I’m looking forward to it and looking forward to working with the players. The players will be given time to gel and that’s why we’ve picked a training camp in Budapest.
“I think pre-season camps abroad help. They will be given the chance to mix. I think the players will enjoy it. It’s a terrific training base we’re going to.
“It’s up there with the best I’ve been to. The pitches will be perfect and the facilities will be excellent.
“Basically the pre-season is to get them ready for that first game against Kilmarnock.
“It’s about being ready for the next 10 months as well and we’ll be trying to avoid any injuries and remain unscathed.
“The players know it’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be a tough pre-season.
“But what we’re trying to do is get them mentally and physically prepared for the next 10 months. It’s going to be a tough season for us.
“We have to try and work within a formation that suits the players and they’re comfortable with.
“Hopefully they’ll be ready to go. The one thing about working with Gordon Strachan when I was at Celtic was that you had to be fit to be in his team.
“If you weren’t fit, then you weren’t any use to him. You were prepared for that. That was instilled in you and I’ve taken that into management. You’ve got to be prepared and I’m sure they will be.
“It’s going to be hard and they know that.”
Hartley and his back-room team will leave no stone unturned to ensure the players are as well prepared as possible. It is very much a modern 21st-Century approach with the appliance of science being used in every facet of pre-season.
Hartley added: “We’ll work together on the fitness side of things. Tam (Ritchie), the fitness coach, will do a lot of the stuff but the ball will be out on the first day of training.
“I think players nowadays come back in a much better condition than they probably did 10 or 15 years ago. There’s not as much of a break now.
“Our players have had a programme to stick to over the summer. They’ve had a couple of weeks off and they’ve had to look after themselves.
“I think they’ll be fine with the shape they’ll be in. The break used to be about eight weeks between the end of the season and the start of pre-season.
“Now it’s about four or five weeks. They’re given a programme which means they have to come back in a certain condition.
“We need players who are going to be fit. The one thing about football now is that you have to be fit.
“We’ve got heart-rate monitors in for them this season. They will be tested on everything, from speed to agility.
“The players will be well prepared in terms of the food they eat and what they drink. They’ll be hydrated and urine samples will be taken every day. We will look at everything.
“The players will be well looked after. As a player, we used to just run for two weeks until you dropped.
“It’s changed but you still need to a have a certain level of fitness.”