Bedding down!

Reporter: MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date published: 02 April 2014


ATHLETIC’S players could be invited to SLEEP on the job if their manager gets his way.

Lee Johnson’s dream for a revamped Boundary Park includes a hotel, which would have rooms in which his men could get some sleep between training sessions.

Having examined methods overseas, Johnson thinks UK players have things too easy - and he reckons assigning beds in a new facility built into the new North Stand could pay dividends on the field.

“Obviously there is the physical side of things, and players need the rest,” he said. “A big part of my thinking would be to get beds into a club.

“If you had an hotel or dormitory you could have a Spanish-style siesta to repair muscles and go out and train again.

“One of the problems I have with English football is that not enough training goes on. From what I’ve seen abroad there’s a bit more of an edge. They have facilities to train two or three times a day.

“Here, it is difficult to ask someone who lives an hour away to come in three times a day. You can lose people that way. But I would if there was an hotel in the corner of the ground where they could have a little siesta.”