United assistant manager Graham Kavanagh (GK) spoke to BBC Radio Cumbria's James Phillips (JP) this evening ahead of Carlisle's pre-season friendly at Kendal, Kavanagh saying that he is in good shape :
GK
I am fit, I mean I am not obviously.................. I have done all the program that I have to do in pre-season, my knee is a hell of a lot better than it was, I have done and learned a lot more about my knee over the summer in what I need. So, I am in good shape, I have done quite a lot of the runs, and I am being selective with the runs I do now. The gaffer (Greg Abbott) wants me more to be a roaming eye really to push the lads and see how they are getting on.
JP
Historically perhaps not the favourite part of a footballer's career, the pre-season bit, but having done a few and having now made it up into the coaching set-up here, how important are these parts of the year?
GK
Well, you are going to get the same old stuff said by the same people all the time, but it is true. It is vitally important to our season, I think I look back on my career and I think I have had 21 pre-seasons behind me now, this will be my 21st, and you look at the players that you have played with and invariably October, November, December-time are crucial times when players get pulls and hamstrings.
If you look back to what happened in pre-season, they generally had a week or two weeks missing, so getting that formation and base is vitally important. But, some people are different, some people are naturally fit and are able to get through it, but some people find it difficult. But, it is all about pushing yourself to the limit to get as much out of it as you can possibly get for yourself, and see where that takes you from the first game of the season.
JP
And based on the progress of the last few years under Greg Abbott and yourself, how excited is everyone about this year coming?
GK
Yeah, really excited, I think luckily enough every year we have had progression, the club have moved forward from the first year when we looked like we were nearly going to get relegated, and we managed to stave that off, to the following season getting to Wembley. Alright we lost out, but we finished just below mid-table last season, we won it and got above mid-table, and we need to be looking to progress again next season.
So, the squad is looking good, I think that the foundations that we have put in place, the lads understand how we work, what the criteria to play in our team is, and it all comes from hard work. It starts in pre-season and they know that and the new lads that have come into the group have got to learn that pretty quickly and then just become part of the unit. Which, as we all know in any team sport, no individual is bigger than the group so if the group is working in the right direction then you are not going to have too many problems.