Tenerife Diary: Day One

Monday, July 17th 2017

With a midday flight to catch, it’s a 9am meet at Ashton Gate for the players and staff ahead of the short coach journey to Bristol airport.

The pressure is on Kasia Kelly, City’s football administrator, to ensure everybody is present and correct with passport in hand. With a total of 47 players and staff representing the club on tour, it’s a big old operation.

Thankfully, after a couple of teething problems at the luggage check-in desk, all the important equipment is on board and the flight leaves on time.

Four hours later, City touch down at Tenerife South airport and make the 30-minute drive to the wonderful Villa Maria hotel, just a stone’s throw from the T3 Top Training resort.

There’s not much time to waste, so as soon as we’ve collected our room keys and dumped our baggage, it’s time to reconvene in the restaurant for a bite to eat before training.

After food, the quartet of Aden Flint, Marlon Pack, Jamie Paterson and Matty Taylor spy a window of opportunity to test out the pool table (Taylor wins) and then it’s off to the pitch.

As the media duo, myself and Adam Baker arrive early to set up. Today’s output consists of a Facebook Live interview with assistant head coach Dean Holden, video snippets from training and an extended chat with Bailey Wright on his first day back with his club team-mates.

Bailey discusses his all-action summer with the Australia national team, from facing Brazil in Melbourne to the Confederations Cup in Russia.

The City defender played in all three matches as the Socceroos drew 1-1 with Cameroon and Chile and were beaten 3-2 by eventual winners Germany.

WHAT HE SAID

"I think this one today was my 23rd or 24th flight this summer! And a few of them were good 13-hour stints. It's a lot of flying, but I'm used to it."

Bailey Wright

Elsewhere, Gary O’Neil is taking part in his first training session after injury, while strikers Aaron Wilbraham, Matty Taylor, Milan Djuric and Gustav Engvall are all absent.

From the training pitch it’s back to the restaurant for the evening meal before Josh Brownhill and Callum O’Dowda come under the microscope in the first of our ‘Who Am I?’ quizzes – a BCTV feature that will become a running theme with different categories throughout the week.

It’s the final act of a hectic day one. Tomorrow (Tuesday) will be the first double session of the week, with the players scheduled to train in the morning and afternoon as they continue their preparations for the new season.