Fabio Capello plans to take England's Euro 2012 squad on a beach vacation to Marbella in a bid to refresh his players before the finals in Poland and Ukraine.
Capello is concerned that England's players will arrive for the Euro build-up both physically and mentally fatigued at the end of a long season with their clubs.
Rather than go straight into a gruelling training camp, as they did in Austria before the 2010 World Cup, England's stars will be able to rest their weary bodies in the Spanish sunshine after Capello decided to take a more relaxed approach to his preparations this time.
"We will go to Marbella for five or six days," Capello told several English newspapers on Sunday.
"It's very nice. We needed to find a warm place, where we can work as a group and there are no problems for training.
"I know the facilities very well because it is the place where Fiorentina train, Bayern Munich went there for a long time.
"There are also three good training pitches - that is why I picked it."
Capello has also admitted that his decision to base England in the remote Rustenburg complex for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa was a bad move as it left his players bored and restless.
So, next year, they will be based in Poland in a plush city centre boutique hotel in the attractive surrounds of Krakow, even though all their group matches are being played in Ukraine.
Capello has always believed team bases are of little concern, but he acknowledges that good results in the finals will see his plans hailed as a masterstroke, while a repeat of their dismal World Cup performances will lead to more ridicule.
"I saw what happened (to the England rugby players) in New Zealand - a lot of relaxing!" he said.
"If you find the key to win then everything is perfect. Everything is good. If you lose, everything is boring, the security (is too much), you're tired - everything is a problem."
While some have criticised England's decision not to move to a Ukraine base, Capello is embracing the prospect of having to fly into Donetsk and Kiev for group games.
The flight times to these places are less than the road journeys that would have been required to Wroclaw and Warsaw if England had been pitched into the more favourable Pot A.
Capello began plotting England's Euro 2012 preparations almost as soon as the draw had been completed in Kiev on Friday.
A fixture against Holland at Wembley has been confirmed and two more friendlies are set to be arranged, one at Wembley, the other away from home.
"We need to prepare everything," Capello said. "We need to study when we need to go to Spain and when we need to play the friendly games. I have time to decide.
"I hope my players will get time to recover their energies. But I need to wait to see what situation the players arrive at the end of the season in.
"I can't speak about that now. If, for instance, two English clubs play the final of the Champions League then it changes things."
Source: AFP
