Pulis recalls Blackpool beach and beer as bonding after Spurs' Marbella trip
Tony Pulis said Tottenham's team-bonding trip to Marbella last week prompted him to reflect on the methods he used as a manager to build team morale. He contrasted modern warm-weather camps with the kinds of bonding he saw and organised at clubs including Stoke and Bristol Rovers.
Pulis wrote a few weeks ago about how Spurs boss Roberto de Zerbi needed time with his players after their poor start to the season and would use the southern Spain camp to bed in what is almost a new squad of players. He noted Tottenham spent more than £250m on new talent over the summer, adding 10 players to De Zerbi's squad, which made an early-season camp sensible. When Pulis was Stoke manager he frequently took teams to Austria in pre-season to test fitness and observe how groups worked together, and he said extreme tests over a 10-day period brought out a determination that helped through early Premier League difficulties.
Recalling his own playing days, Pulis described three days' pre-season training in Blackpool where players stayed in a guest house with three-quarter beds that were shared, ran on the sand each morning and played seven-a-side on a local park pitch after clearing dog muck. Evenings, he said, allowed the players out for a few beers with no stipulated return time other than being downstairs and ready to hit the beach at 8am the next morning. He contrasted those spit-and-sawdust trips with today's camps, where most Premier League clubs go first-class with great hotels, great facilities and wonderful food and the team bus is followed by an even bigger bus carrying non-playing staff.
Pulis described a massive drinking culture through the 1970s and 80s across the leagues and cited stories from clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal. He said bonding in that era often happened in pubs after games and training, winter breaks were rare and trips to Spain at the end of the season tended to involve more alcohol. With modern players more aware of the dangers of drinking to excess, Pulis said managers now have to find other ways for players to connect amid new distractions such as mobile phones; he added he used to "go mad" when he walked into a dining room and saw a group of lads looking at their phone and not engaging with each other.
On more rigorous team-building, Pulis recalled taking Stoke to an army-style camp in Exmouth where players were put through cross-country circuits in freezing conditions and heavy rain, including climbing and swimming under water in a darkened tunnel, which he said he did alongside them. He described afternoon sessions spent on practical team tasks — for example using drums and planks to cross an area within 20 minutes without touching the ground — and nights in bunk beds with only plastic sheeting over the mattress and one very thin blanket, with everyone buying into the challenges.
Pulis said his favourite destination was Irdning in Austria, where he stayed in a 1,000-year-old building he calls "The Castle" that offered swimming pools, a large gym, saunas, steam rooms, a spa and a golf course. He added Real Madrid also stayed there, which led to a pre-season friendly in Austria in 2007; "Goals in each half from Raul and Roberto Soldado left Stoke a mountain to climb when they faced Real Madrid in a pre-season friendly in Austria in 2007," he wrote. He also recounted a 2004 trip during his first spell as Stoke manager under Icelandic ownership, when Gerry Taggart asked to borrow the team bus so the players could go for a few beers and Pulis, concerned about being out of his sight, paid the driver a few quid to keep them close to the hotel — a ruse the players eventually discovered but which still resulted in a good time at the hotel.
Turning to recent matches and off-field matters, Pulis wrote about Manchester City's Champions League game against Paris St-Germain last week, saying Erling Haaland's goal started City's comeback but PSG won 4-2. He described the contest as a throwback with numerous crosses, shots and goalmouth action and added his view that City were unlucky not to get anything from the game. Referencing the independent commission verdict that City had been found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules, Pulis said he had written tongue in cheek asking City to send over the FA Cup and winners medals from 2011 to his old club Stoke — they have not arrived — and posed questions about why it had taken so long to reach this point and why Premier League officials had continued presenting City with trophies; "Football has not been the winner and the whole game has been soured by this story, not just the Premier League," he wrote.
Tony Pulis was speaking to BBC Sport's Chris Bevan. His comments appear on BBC Sport.