Oxford United's Under 19 side were back at the Bangkok Glass Training Centre today after a two-week trip to Italy which ended with a 0-0 draw against Parma, leaving them with two wins and a draw from their tour.
The tour was funded by Erasamus and LFE and as Coach Chris Hackett told us, was about much more than just football
“It was a great experience. Twelve days anywhere when you go as a group can be quite intense, but the boys responded fantastically. It was a young group, with a couple of under 16s in there as well, but it was a good experience both on and off the pitch.
“In the final game Parma have got a lot of history and it’s a big club with a big academy, and we drew 0-0 in a tough game, played in 38˚ heat, which was a challenge in itself, but the boys responded really well.”
“It was a funded trip by Erasmus and the LFE, so it was a cultural trip for the boys. They had Italian language lessons with an Italian guy called Piero, who was fantastic. We went to Milan, to the San Siro, and had a tour around Milan, and we went to Parma and Bologna and managed to get to a game in Bologna in the first round of the Italian Cup, which was an experience.”
Another important aspect of the trip was the chance for the boys to bond.
“That’s something the boys have missed out in during the past couple of years with the Covid pandemic. Last year’s second-year group had almost 18 months of Covid restrictions, when they just had training and games and missed out that social side massively. It was great to see teenagers being teenagers, bonding and building relationships.
“We are back today and we reminded them that they have to get back into the routine and not to lower their standards in training.
"Their first game of the season is on Saturday against Swindon, which is a big game, so we prep as normal. We came back on Friday and had the weekend off so they could go back and see their families, which is important. They’ve had a little bit of time to recover, and we just crack on as normal this week.”