Shropshire Star

Sam Ricketts aiming to build Shrewsbury Town culture in pre-season trip

Shrewsbury Town boss Sam Ricketts wants this week’s warm-weather training camp in Portugal to create a positive culture within the club.

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Salop jetted off to the Algarve yesterday where they will be put through their paces in tough sessions in warm conditions for seven nights in the south of Portugal.

Ricketts’ men will also contest their first official pre-season friendly of the summer, when they play a practice match with Championship outfit Sheffield Wednesday.

Town have already taken on Welsh Premier champions TNS and Wolves’ academy in behind-closed-doors matches.

While the Town squad will be worked hard physically by new fitness coach Andy Johnson, Ricketts believes the relationships built on such trips are key.

“I put it back so we’d been in training for two weeks before going,” Ricketts said of the warm-weather camp, which is the third trip to Portugal in three years.

“The idea is there were more fresh faces in so when we’re away spending seven or eight days together we’ll be living in each other’s pockets.

“It was getting as much as a group together.

“They say team spirit and team bonding which gets bandied around a lot, but really it’s personal relationships.

“Getting to understand each other, getting to understand more about each player – their partners, kids, things like that which brings people together and builds that relationship.

“Then with that comes a culture that will pass over on to the pitch.”

A good number of Town fans have flown out to the Algarve to watch Ricketts’ men in action against the Owls tomorrow in a fixture at the Estádio da Nora, which was made open to the public.

It is expected that seven new signings Ethan Ebanks-Landell, Daniel Udoh, Steve Morison, Aaron Pierre, Ryan Giles, Joe Murphy and Bristol City keeper Max O’Leary, will be away with their new team-mates.

It is thought midfielder Anthony Grant, who has been recovering from dental surgery, will not be joining Town in Portugal.

Town face Steve Bruce’s side at the home of FC Ferreiras tomorrow evening.