No matter what Alan Archibald throws at his Partick Thistle players during pre-season training, Adam Barton will take it in his stride.
That’s because his first taste of Scotland, on a pre-season training trip while at Preston, was to an army camp in Arbroath. If you think that sounds rather unappealing, then you would be right.
It is little wonder then, that the cultured midfielder rather more appreciates the approach of Thistle boss Archibald, with the novelty of actually getting to kick a ball still to wear off for the 26-year-old.
“I went to an army camp in Arbroath when Phil Brown was Preston manager - he took the whole squad there,” explained Barton.
“We didn’t sleep for three days and players were wondering how this was good for our football. I didn’t think it was. We just ran around with the army for three days.
“One night they said we could have a good, long sleep and then at 3am this big siren went off and we had to get into wet gear and get up. We only had one set of clothes for three days and it was soaking from the rain.
“We were all thinking – ‘this isn’t football’. Half of us wanted to quit there and then - ‘it’s not for me this’’.
“We were wearing army gear, the big boots and just one pair of socks, even though it was raining.
“We didn’t see a football and that was the one pre-season I felt was pointless, personally.
“A lot of people think pre-season is a case of running until you are sick. Some people do that - but they have probably been drinking all summer. Nowadays, you need to look after yourself when you are off. We are at a professional club and we all know what we have to do and that’s why we are at this level.
“The pre-season training depends on the manager’s philosophies. Some managers use a ball with every drill, some don’t. It changes.
“I saw that the England players went to an army camp but I didn’t need reminded of Arbroath. That will always stay with me and I bring it up every pre-season.
“When I look back, I think, ‘What the hell were we doing?’. It was crazy. A lot of the senior players probably wanted to say something to the gaffer.
“We had guys like Graham Alexander and Clarke Carlisle, who had been in the Premier League. As a young player, I was hoping someone would say, ‘Gaffer, what are we doing here?’ I couldn’t do that and it was probably hard for them to do it too.
“The gaffer did take part in some of the exercises but he could drop in and out and also had new clothes every day.
“The food wasn’t great and it was a mental challenge really. The meals were rubbish and they were looking for the first person to break. None of us did but I think that’s what he was trying.
“We were in tents, lying on grass in the wet. It was horrible. That was actually my first memory of Scotland. It wasn’t a good first impression.
“Coming up last year, I was glad I missed pre-season. This year, I was thinking, ‘I’m not going to Arbroath am I?’”
Thankfully for Barton, his current manager has a much more modern outlook on what he requires from his players during the off-season.
“The gaffer’s approach is totally different,” he said.
“There is a lot of football and we do runs that we will make in games too. The whole point is to prepare and everything we do is specific to football matches.
“When we see that, the lads don’t moan. It’s what we have to do. But when we go to army camps, that’s when the moaning starts.”
Thistle fans may be hoping that Barton follows similar preparations for the new season as he did for the last, with his fine form since his arrival from Portsmouth earning him the club’s player of the year award.
“I was confident in myself when I signed but I didn’t expect it to go as well as it did. I came up with an open mind and threw myself at it.
“Thank God it went really well and it will be hard to top last season.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here