Sergio goes for Fitness.

[Septimus]

An article in the Scotsman today tells us that Hearts players are having their day off on Wednesday cancelled and they are actually going to do double training sessions.

That's the ba' on the slates as far as we are concerned then. Maybe we could get Jones up to lead a player revolt. Its not fair that they are taking advantage like this.

Sooner or later the penny will drop and increasing fitness among Scottish clubs will become the norm.

[500miles]

Can we put an end to this, and point out that the players weren't saying " awww, it's no fair, we have to do double sessions!"
Players were feeling heavy legged from too much fitness work and didn't feel they were getting the time to do ANY ballwork.

You have to remember, the dressing room fall out which preceded the players meeting came after a particularly listless away loss.

What's more, players have since done double sessions with Mixu, Yogi AND Calderwood.

But there is a time and a place. You don't have players training like pre-season during March. You WILL overtrain some players. The naturally athletic ones will get away with it.

Lasting 90 minutes is also a mentality issue. A positive, confident player will get more out of himself, than a less positive confident player.
Jump on a treadmill after getting Jessica Alba's phone number.
Then jump on one after her security team find you hiding in her bedroom clausit, hammer you, and throw you out.

Collins was training the players without motivating them. He was also expecting football from guys like Jones without the necassary ball work.

I know it's nice to maintain the JC legend, but the fact is, since then, he's packed in management without making much of a mark. Maybe whoever told him he was never a manager during the dressing room exchange was bang on.

[EK_Hibs]

Since he's arrived at the PBS he's talked about improving the players' technique and focusing on passing movements and movement off the ball as well. Basically he's making noises that I personally would like to hear from Mr Calderwood.


==============================================

Hearts manager Paulo Sergio has cancelled his players' traditional midweek day off as he wants to work on developing their skills.

With Hearts playing in Europe and on Sundays throughout August, Sergio did not give his players any rest in the first few weeks of his reign.

The international break allowed them some respite but the former Sporting Lisbon coach is looking to gradually import more stringent methods from Portugal in a bid to improve his side.

Sergio has already had a positive impact, leading Hearts to three consecutive clean sheets, and they will look to follow up a comfortable Edinburgh derby win when they travel to Inverness in the SPL on Saturday.

"Since we arrived, the first day off was last weekend," Sergio said. "With all the SPL games and Europa League games, we didn't have a day off.

"I know in Scotland you are used to stopping on Wednesday but we stopped that. I believe Wednesday is maybe the best day of the week to work.

"If you play on Saturday and you have a day off on Sunday, Monday they arrive back at the club to recover.

"Tuesday, they are used to doing some hard work and they have a day off on Wednesday, they return on Thursday to do something and on Friday they are practising for the game on Saturday, working on free-kicks and corner-kicks.

"I find it a short week. How do you develop as a player if you don't work, if you don't sleep with the ball? It's hard to improve technically.

"We want to practise at high intensity because you don't play slowly during a game."

Hearts players will have more changes to adapt to in the coming months.

"If I was in Portugal, we would also be working one or two afternoons as well," Sergio said. "With time I will introduce some afternoon sessions here.

"We have started working Wednesdays, I don't want to make a huge change because that can have a bad impact on their physical conditions.

"We are also starting to put in place individual programmes for each player to work in the gym in the afternoon.

"We made an evaluation last week of each player, so we have scientific values of their balance between muscles and legs."

Sergio is confident his players have accepted and embraced the changes.

"I think so, I don't have any problem with that," he said. "I believe in hard work in my life. Nobody gives you anything, it's through work you achieve your goals.

"I like to explain my ideas, I don't want to impose them without people understanding why I'm doing these things.

"I have changed too, I have to adapt to some things. It's reasonable for me to keep some things the same, they have been here for years before me."

Sergio reported little change to his squad ahead of the trip north but goalkeeper Marian Kello is a doubt with the shoulder injury that forced him off in the 2-0 win over Hibernian.

Sergio is keen to add to his squad outside of the transfer window, with his only signing to date, former Tottenham midfielder Callum Tapping, earmarked for the under-19 squad initially.

He said: "I'm still looking because I believe we have some positions that we are not safe enough.

"That doesn't mean I don't trust the players. Barcelona win things every year and they still buy new players.

"I feel we don't have enough solutions in some specific positions.

"They have excellent talent and they are working a lot and showing me they are trying to do the things I ask of them. I'm very happy with them."

[son of haggart]

Very happy with the approach sergio is taking but it is a big risk in the scottish game. You need the players, especially at the back, who can hold and pass the ball without panicking. It's not the natural way we play and needs to be learned. There's not much patience for it in scottish crowds "Get the ball up the Park"!!!"

[IWasThere2016]

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Very happy with the approach sergio is taking but it is a big risk in the scottish game. You need the players, especially at the back, who can hold and pass the ball without panicking. It's not the natural way we play and needs to be learned. There's not much patience for it in scottish crowds "Get the ball up the Park"!!!"

Sadly very true ...

[Aubenas]

Sergio is dead right and Collins' motif of 'high intensity, high tempo' makes perfect sense. Strange as it may seem I think Collins' real problem was Tommy Craig - he was an old school coach, very good at what he did but not a brilliant communicator. So you had a modern approach allied to an old fashioned apporach that was pretty confusing for the players. Collins, as a new manager had still to work out how to 'deal with' players (which is what young managers normally do at lower league level). He would have benefited from someone like Donald Park beside him - highly rated coach, popular with young players, or, strangely, someone at the stage Ian Murray is at now - player, respected by his team mates who could play the role - Guys, this is what the Boss is trying to do; Boss, this is how the team feel.'

But high tempo, ball skills, scientific fitness is the way to go without doubt. That gets the best out of players no matter what level of talent they are. 5 days a week at East Mains doesn't have to mean 5 days of training like they do now; there's all manner of activities that would be beneficial to team building and players personal development.

Mind you, this is Scotland........

[PeeJay]

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Very happy with the approach sergio is taking but it is a big risk in the scottish game. You need the players, especially at the back, who can hold and pass the ball without panicking. It's not the natural way we play and needs to be learned. There's not much patience for it in scottish crowds "Get the ball up the Park"!!!"

Spot on - surely the answer surely lies with Scotland's youth then - this philosophy has to be taught to them while young, the best time to mould their mind sets. Doubt we can change the ideas and practices of the current bunch of "professionals".

This calls for patience, investment and vision on the part of the Scottish footballing authorities along with a radical change in football culture, not sure we have anyone involved however who could actually set this up and see it through.

Will Sergio be given the time to reallise his intentions...

[basehibby]

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Can we put an end to this, and point out that the players weren't saying " awww, it's no fair, we have to do double sessions!"
Players were feeling heavy legged from too much fitness work and didn't feel they were getting the time to do ANY ballwork.

You have to remember, the dressing room fall out which preceded the players meeting came after a particularly listless away loss.

What's more, players have since done double sessions with Mixu, Yogi AND Calderwood.

But there is a time and a place. You don't have players training like pre-season during March. You WILL overtrain some players. The naturally athletic ones will get away with it.

Lasting 90 minutes is also a mentality issue. A positive, confident player will get more out of himself, than a less positive confident player.
Jump on a treadmill after getting Jessica Alba's phone number.
Then jump on one after her security team find you hiding in her bedroom clausit, hammer you, and throw you out.

Collins was training the players without motivating them. He was also expecting football from guys like Jones without the necassary ball work.

I know it's nice to maintain the JC legend, but the fact is, since then, he's packed in management without making much of a mark. Maybe whoever told him he was never a manager during the dressing room exchange was bang on.

If you want to "put an end to this" then admit that the players of 2007 basically spat the dummy and arguably cost us a crack at the Scottish Cup as a result. Their points raised about the training regime may or may not have been valid, but at three quarters of the way through the season with a Cup Semi Final just weeks away, their actions were misguided, selfish and disruptive IMO. Of course Petrie played his part with a phenomenal act of misjudgement in entertaining their rebelious stance instead of telling them to suck it and see until the end of the season.

Collins was evidently not all things to all men as a manager but he had managed to steer the club to one trophy and we as a support were let down badly by the players' failure to show sufficient patience, loyalty and professionalism at what was a crucial point in a season which could have yielded two!

[erin go bragh]

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If you want to "put an end to this" then admit that the players of 2007 basically spat the dummy and arguably cost us a crack at the Scottish Cup as a result. Their points raised about the training regime may or may not have been valid, but at three quarters of the way through the season with a Cup Semi Final just weeks away, their actions were misguided, selfish and disruptive IMO. Of course Petrie played his part with a phenomenal act of misjudgement in entertaining their rebelious stance instead of telling them to suck it and see until the end of the season.

Collins was evidently not all things to all men as a manager but he had managed to steer the club to one trophy and we as a support were let down badly by the players' failure to show sufficient patience, loyalty and professionalism at what was a crucial point in a season which could have yielded two!

Spot on
Did collins not just lead the players to our first trophy in over 16 years and they have a revolt just weeks away from the semi final. And bang goes our double in the year 07 .[what a year to do a double that would have been]

GGTTH

[bighairyfaeleith]

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If you want to "put an end to this" then admit that the players of 2007 basically spat the dummy and arguably cost us a crack at the Scottish Cup as a result. Their points raised about the training regime may or may not have been valid, but at three quarters of the way through the season with a Cup Semi Final just weeks away, their actions were misguided, selfish and disruptive IMO. Of course Petrie played his part with a phenomenal act of misjudgement in entertaining their rebelious stance instead of telling them to suck it and see until the end of the season.

Collins was evidently not all things to all men as a manager but he had managed to steer the club to one trophy and we as a support were let down badly by the players' failure to show sufficient patience, loyalty and professionalism at what was a crucial point in a season which could have yielded two!

Well said

I love hibs, but I ****ing hate spoilt footballers.

Double training should happen every week, not always double fitness mind, but double training, this can mean more ball work, more tactical work, more set piece practice, more fitness, and of course less time for the wee cants to spend at the bookies with our money!!

[MCameron]

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.....................Collins was training the players without motivating them.

Wait a minute we're meant to be talking about highly paid professional sportsmen here - if they don't have it within themselves to find that self-motivation to get to the peak of fitness then I'd question whether they should have been at our club at all.

[bob12345]

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Can we put an end to this, and point out that the players weren't saying " awww, it's no fair, we have to do double sessions!"
Players were feeling heavy legged from too much fitness work and didn't feel they were getting the time to do ANY ballwork.

John Collins is one of the biggest promoters of Coerver across the world, a technical skills development programme/curriculum, and has been before, during and after taking the Hibs job. I don't believe for a minute that his sessions were lacking ball work, as it would be a million miles away from everything he stands for. Working too hard maybe, but sincerely doubt it was without a ball.

[Cropley10]

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Can we put an end to this, and point out that the players weren't saying " awww, it's no fair, we have to do double sessions!"
Players were feeling heavy legged from too much fitness work and didn't feel they were getting the time to do ANY ballwork.

You have to remember, the dressing room fall out which preceded the players meeting came after a particularly listless away loss.

What's more, players have since done double sessions with Mixu, Yogi AND Calderwood.

But there is a time and a place. You don't have players training like pre-season during March. You WILL overtrain some players. The naturally athletic ones will get away with it.

Lasting 90 minutes is also a mentality issue. A positive, confident player will get more out of himself, than a less positive confident player.
Jump on a treadmill after getting Jessica Alba's phone number.
Then jump on one after her security team find you hiding in her bedroom clausit, hammer you, and throw you out.

Collins was training the players without motivating them. He was also expecting football from guys like Jones without the necassary ball work.

I know it's nice to maintain the JC legend, but the fact is, since then, he's packed in management without making much of a mark. Maybe whoever told him he was never a manager during the dressing room exchange was bang on.

How do you know this? I find it strange that he'd do too much fitness and not enough ball work, seeing as he himself says he worked with the ball every day.

You could interpret it that they didn't like breaking sweat, preferring a kick about instead.

So the reason they went to Mr Petrie one evening was because they were feeling " heavy legged"? If true, words fail me!

As for Sergio the last thing is that lot getting fitter and playing better.

[Cropley10]

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John Collins is one of the biggest promoters of Coerver across the world, a technical skills development programme/curriculum, and has been before, during and after taking the Hibs job. I don't believe for a minute that his sessions were lacking ball work, as it would be a million miles away from everything he stands for. Working too hard maybe, but sincerely doubt it was without a ball.

Exactly what I was referring to above!

[Kaiser1962]

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Sergio is dead right and Collins' motif of 'high intensity, high tempo' makes perfect sense. Strange as it may seem I think Collins' real problem was Tommy Craig - .

Totally agree. Collins displayed an unswerving belief that Craig was some sort of coaching genius who could do no wrong.

[stantonhibby]

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If you want to "put an end to this" then admit that the players of 2007 basically spat the dummy and arguably cost us a crack at the Scottish Cup as a result. Their points raised about the training regime may or may not have been valid, but at three quarters of the way through the season with a Cup Semi Final just weeks away, their actions were misguided, selfish and disruptive IMO. Of course Petrie played his part with a phenomenal act of misjudgement in entertaining their rebelious stance instead of telling them to suck it and see until the end of the season.

Collins was evidently not all things to all men as a manager but he had managed to steer the club to one trophy and we as a support were let down badly by the players' failure to show sufficient patience, loyalty and professionalism at what was a crucial point in a season which could have yielded two!

Exactly

Could the players not see that regardless of their gripes about training it seemed to work. We won a cup final 5-1 FFS and p*shed all over Hearts in the most one sided 1-0 game ever !
We had a Scottish Cup semi against I think the bottom of the league team and they choose then to throw the toys out the pram ! Unforgiveable imo .

[Bostonhibby]

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An article in the Scotsman today tells us that Hearts players are having their day off on Wednesday cancelled and they are actually going to do double training sessions.

That's the ba' on the slates as far as we are concerned then. Maybe we could get Jones up to lead a player revolt. Its not fair that they are taking advantage like this.

Sooner or later the penny will drop and increasing fitness among Scottish clubs will become the norm.

Sounds a bit like what JC was trying to do - it may never catch on down our way - Sergio might have to do it on a school pitch somewhere but this is the sort of position we should be ahead of with our facilities, it doesn't look or feel like it at times on the pitch and the culture outside working hours is something else again.

[Bostonhibby]

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Exactly

Could the players not see that regardless of their gripes about training it seemed to work. We won a cup final 5-1 FFS and p*shed all over Hearts in the most one sided 1-0 game ever !
We had a Scottish Cup semi against I think the bottom of the league team and they choose then to throw the toys out the pram ! Unforgiveable imo .

Interruption to their social life given their new found short lived social status post that win maybe?

[timebomb]

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Spot on - surely the answer surely lies with Scotland's youth then - this philosophy has to be taught to them while young, the best time to mould their mind sets. Doubt we can change the ideas and practices of the current bunch of "professionals".

This calls for patience, investment and vision on the part of the Scottish footballing authorities along with a radical change in football culture, not sure we have anyone involved however who could actually set this up and see it through.

Will Sergio be given the time to reallise his intentions...

That's the job for me - I'd give up on trying to change the mentality of the current Scottish professionals. Start that regime from the U17's up so in 3-5 years time when they are coming through to the first team their techniqe should be a lot better and will hopefully have the profesional work ethic to go with it.

[Northernhibee]

We should look at what Arbroath are doing in division two.

Newly promoted from div. 3, they're leaking goals at the back, but they're scoring their way out of trouble - won 4-3 today away from home.

Rather than hoofing it up to Gaz as a lone striker, we should be looking at having two strikers and a good attacking midfielder supporting them, or three strikers up front.

We're going to leak goals this season - that's a certainty. If Caldo's got confidence in his signings, let's see them play.

[heretoday]

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We should look at what Arbroath are doing in division two.

Newly promoted from div. 3, they're leaking goals at the back, but they're scoring their way out of trouble - won 4-3 today away from home.

Rather than hoofing it up to Gaz as a lone striker, we should be looking at having two strikers and a good attacking midfielder supporting them, or three strikers up front.

We're going to leak goals this season - that's a certainty. If Caldo's got confidence in his signings, let's see them play.

Hear! Hear! Go for it. Looks like we've got nothing left to lose.

[Northernhibee]

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Hear! Hear! Go for it. Looks like we've got nothing left to lose.

Well, Arbroath won Div. 3 last year and are now top of Div. 2, Dunfermline seem to be able to score their way out of trouble and have impressed me so far, Blackpool looked like relegation candidates in the championship two years ago and took their premiership survival down to the last game of the season by playing attacking football - it's how we need to play.

Get the ball into the opponents half, pass it up to our strikers (no more hoofing!) and have enough strikers to take the chances.

Maybe something like the following:

Stack
Towell Murray O'Hanlon Booth

Sproule Osbourne Griffiths

Agogo O'Connor Sodje


Great attacking minded midfield, three players who can give the opponents back four a headache and score goals, get big Ian at the back again (he's been away from that position permanantly for a while, I know) to offer some experience and leadership in the centre back positons, with Booth and Towell able to offer crossover options for Griffiths and Sproule.

Would love to see something like that, as opposed to the beiger-than-beige 4-5-1 Calderwood will probably hoof up.

[libernian]

pretty sure heriot watt uni will be using their training ground on wednesday

[leither17]

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John Collins is one of the biggest promoters of Coerver across the world, a technical skills development programme/curriculum, and has been before, during and after taking the Hibs job. I don't believe for a minute that his sessions were lacking ball work, as it would be a million miles away from everything he stands for. Working too hard maybe, but sincerely doubt it was without a ball.

[Septimus]

My memories of John Collins as a player is that he was a natural with inbuilt skill. The fact that he was, and is, a fitness fanatic was a bonus. We don't seem to see that kind of player these days and the shortfall in skill has to be made up by hard work bringing fitness. A good result against Aberdeen today will hopefully show that Sergio is not alone in realising that.

[Ozyhibby]

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My memories of John Collins as a player is that he was a natural with inbuilt skill. The fact that he was, and is, a fitness fanatic was a bonus. We don't seem to see that kind of player these days and the shortfall in skill has to be made up by hard work bringing fitness. A good result against Aberdeen today will hopefully show that Sergio is not alone in realising that.

There is no such thing as a natural. Collins just worked harder than his peers to improve his skill, spending time in America at age 14 at a Coerver coaching camp and staying behind in training everyday to perfect his ball skills.

[Kaiser1962]

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My memories of John Collins as a player is that he was a natural with inbuilt skill. The fact that he was, and is, a fitness fanatic was a bonus. We don't seem to see that kind of player these days and the shortfall in skill has to be made up by hard work bringing fitness. A good result against Aberdeen today will hopefully show that Sergio is not alone in realising that.

I'm not so sure his ability is as natural as some would think. I remember JC when he played for St.Margarets school in Gala and while he was good, he was not outstandingly gifted, and there were better. He certainly made the most of what he did have and worked so much harder than most and made sacrifices that others didnt/wouldnt. That he got over 50 caps and had the career he did is testament to that work ethic instilled in him by his father. Where JC fell down when at Hibs was he couldnt understand how others were not prepared to make the sacrifices he did to further their careers.

Incidentally CC is cut from similar cloth to JC in this regard.