He said: “It’s been a tough first couple of weeks for us international boys. While the rest of the group were in Australia we came back in and started our hard work. We’ve all been together this week and it’s been a lot of double sessions, which is tough but it is exactly what we need for the new season.
“For the last couple of years we’ve played European football, so we’ve got an idea of what we can expect when we go to play Rennes or Bayer Leverkusen in the next week.
“Personally, I’m really excited for the Leverkusen game because they have a couple of Czech players in Patrik Schick and Adam Hložek, so it will be great to see them and play against them at their stadium.
“The Rennes game will also be a good test for us. For the French guys in our side, they have the chance to go back and play in France, and also Nayef [Aguerd] used to play for Rennes also so it will be good for him to see his old teammates. The French league is very quick, with a lot of good, individual players, and it will be good to see how we perform against Rennes.”
