Brett Ormerod: No fitness fears with today's Blackpool players

Brett Ormerod says the modern footballer gets fit before pre-season not during it

Matt Scrafton picks his best Blackpool XI during his time reporting on the Seasi...

But Ormerod has no concerns over the fitness of the players when they do eventually return to action after the coronavirus crisis.

The Gazette columnist said: “It’s a different generation now. People are naturally fit anyway. You’re talking about footballers who are athletes.

“In the 1970s and early ’80s it was maybe a different story. Football was even changing when I came into the game in 1993. When I was a kid, pre-season was all about getting fit for the new season. Now you have to be fit for the pre-season. You don’t really have that much time off anymore and if you do you’re always doing something.

“The current generation of players have been brought up on this. They don’t come back three or four stone overweight like the old pros used to, when they had to put bin-bags on for the first couple of days of pre-season to sweat it out.

“They don’t do that anymore – they hit the ground running. They will all be professional. They all know their jobs and they all know their own bodies.”

Prior to the lockdown, Ormerod had been working as a finishing coach alongside former Seasiders Jamie Milligan and John Hills, who are in charge of NPL Premier Division side Bamber Bridge.

Their season was scrapped last week but Ormerod says the players still do whatever it takes to remain fit.

He added: “We’re in a group chat and the lads keep us updated with what they’re doing to keep fit.

“They’re all going on bike rides and runs, and they’re posting their times. That’s how it is now at every level. That’s the standard.

“Their league has finished now, so for Jamie and Hillsy it will be a case of looking forward to next season.

“The players will have a chance for a little bit of rest but they’ll keep it going through the summer.

“The fitter you come back in pre-season the less running you have to do. That was always the incentive.

“As you were got older, you were given a programme to do during the summer and they would take your weight.

“If you came back in pretty good shape as a squad, the less running you’d do and the quicker the footballs would come out.”