Interim England boss Stuart Pearce has hinted that he has cut the time that will be spent away from home in a pre-Euro 2012 training camp in Spain.
Fabio Capello had wanted his players to jet off to Marbella straight after the Champions League final on May 19 to prepare for this summer's tournament in Poland and Ukraine. However, with Capello gone, Pearce has taken the opportunity to "tweak" a few aspects of England's planning in order to try and provide the best opportunity for success.
And one of the alterations is going to be a change of destination, a so far unnamed location in southern Spain, with the amount of time there being cut as well. Pearce said: "I just tinkered with a couple of dates and amended them."
He added: "I felt the rest and recuperation of the players to allow them to freshen up was really important.
"Now, all the players either know, or will get informed very shortly about the whole summer's preparation.
"If I was them I would like to know, even if I only had an outside chance, when I can book a holiday with my wife at the end of the season. That is common-sense and was greeted very well by the players."
It was just one aspect of last week's get-together that pointed towards Pearce being more heavily involved this summer than many people imagined.
Press Association Sport understands Pearce did not attempt to play that prospect down within camp and certainly electing to name Scott Parker as his captain for the defeat by Holland rather than go for the safe option of Steven Gerrard was a significant step.
"I told Steven he was a worthy candidate but I needed him to influence the game," said Pearce.
"He took it fine, as you would expect from a professional like that, and I would have thought there would be one or two more who were disappointed not to lead their country as well, and rightly so."
Source: PA
