Lee Bowyer is pleased with the start his squad has made to pre-season after returning to Sparrows Lane this week.
Following a short three-week break, the Addicks returned to training on Saturday and will be heading to the West Midlands for a training camp at the Belfry for a few days on Wednesday – a vital element to the Addicks boss’ preparations in terms of team bonding.
“The first couple of days have been good,” said Bowyer.
“They’re a bit rusty, which is understandable, but fitness-wise they look in a good place. We’ve not had much of a break, the lads only had about three weeks off, which is just as important as getting the fitness right.
“It’s going to become a long season, but we’re two days in with the balls now and it’s been good.
“It’s important for us to go away together. You need to get that bond, especially with the way things ended at the end of last season. You have to rebuild, that’s just natural. We lost a lot of players so we have to bond this group of players the best we can. It’s what we did for the last two summers and that worked well.
“It’s important that we get a good team spirit and they are the places that it all begins.”
Meanwhile, Charlton discovered their opponents for the first competitive match of the 2020/21 season on Tuesday morning – a trip to Swindon Town in the first round of the Carabao Cup on September 5th – and Bowyer has already laid his plans out for the County Ground.
“It will become a pre-season friendly for us, pure and simple, because it’s before the season even starts,” he explained.
“So instead of organising a friendly against someone else, we’ll just use that as a warm-up game – that’s all we can do.”
Swindon away brings back good memories for myself!” continued Bowyer, who made his professional debut for the Addicks in a League Cup tie against Swindon in 1994.
“That’s where it all started for me, so I’m looking forward to going back there.”
