Rotherham United's players brace themselves for a pre-season of hard graft

The first team squad are due back in on June 26, starting with two days of tests.

After that it will be time to pull on the boots and get down to business as Matt Hamshaw and his staff set about licking the first team squad into better shape.

The recently installed manager saw enough in his eight matches in charge at the end of last season to know fitness needs to be better.

Players have had to keep in trim during the off season and need to be ready for really working up a sweat when sessions start in earnest at Roundwood.

“The lads are already texting me saying ‘is this not already pre-season that we’re doing now?’” Hamshaw told the Advertiser.

“It is going to be tough. I just think that’s what we’re lacking if I’m being 100 per cent honest. We need to be more athletic and more dynamic and we need to be fitter.

“The amount of goals we conceded in the eight games I was here in the last 20 to 25 minutes was unacceptable and that boils down to fitness. There is no other way to dress it up.”

Pre-season won’t be just about running the players hard.

Hamshaw wants to have a more tactically astute group and day-to-day methods are going to change to that end.

He said: “We are going to put a lot more emphasis on individual and group work and really make sure that everybody knows exactly what is happening at any point in the game.

“That’s down to us coaches to make sure we can implement that and I know we can.

“There are a lot of technical and tactical things I want to implement that probably haven’t been implemented.

“Each one of my members of staff will have a unit they work with and we will all rotate through that. Instead of just having big team meetings we’ll have unit meetings and individual meetings.

“It is important there is real clarity on roles and that people know their jobs better.”

Many supporters believe that a bit of the heart and soul has gone out of Rotherham United in recent times.

It’s an over-used word these days, but bringing back an “identity” starts here for Hamshaw and his assembled off-field team of Andy Warrington, Richard Wood and Ross Burbeary, with a new assistant manager due to arrive soon.

Added Hamshaw: “All the members of staff I’m bringing in will push standards, that’s why I’ve brought them in.

“I keep saying it, but it’s important this club gets its DNA back. We know what a Rotherham team should look like and the staff will be key contributors to that.”