Training Thursday 3 April

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Back from a week's hols and straight down to Carrington this morning.Sadly the pitch they used is the worst for me to see much but the one photographer just went round the far side,put up his 20 foot ladder,got out the zoom lens and he had no problem.

I think there were 19 out at the start (4 keepers) but a couple went in straightaway. Yesterday I am told there were 24 training and that included the 2 nameless ones who went in early today so I guess they were not missing for anything serious.One thing for certain they sounded in great spirits and the training plans today seemed to be about having fun as much as anything else.After some initial regular jogs and stretches they got into some kind of a musical chairs game but without music unless Kidd was singing and I couldn't hear it.

Every so often they had to get into groups of 3 or 6 or whatever and the odd one out was ridiculed and did press ups.Lots of laughter to be heard as you can imagine even from a distance.It was like a kids party and there were lots of kids out there.Then into regular keep ball circles before they split into 2 "teams" with one at each end of a pitch to work on finishing from crosses.

Tony Book watched on from a dug out seat as they took it in turns to finish or cross.If there were rules I couldn't work them out but the person crossing the was changing all the time as they tried to score with headers,volleys or whatever. In any event when the whistle blew one of the teams celebrated and cheered/jeered down the field at the others so I guess it was which team scored the most.During the 2nd "game" I could hear Joe mocking as the team against him were really struggling to score.

I had to leave while this was going on after nearly an hour and the good news was Aguero was still fully involved.No way I could say if he would play Saturday but just good to see him in full training. Jovetic was as well.

[Wonderwall]

cheers Doug, good to have you back

[mr_nool]

Thanks Doug! Great news about Aguuuuueeeeerrrroooo!

[Plain Speaking]

Thanks Doug, have been waiting for such good news on Sergio all week. :)

[Plain Speaking]

Thanks Doug, have been waiting for such good news on Sergio all week. :)

[blues2win]

Hopefully Sergio will get some time off the bench on Saturday.

[phips]

thanks for the report Doug.

question, do you know anything about the weight training that they do? obviously its indoors so you cant see it but im wondering if they do it before training or after or what. Inside City sometimes shows them in the gym but ive never read anything about it.

[hartfordsheartbeat]

Doug I thought it was just mancini that didn't really want you reporting on training. Surely the fact you don't report anything controversial and are always positive in your reports warrants the reinstatement of your pass. Surely between here and bluemoon the fans might be able to influence the club. In any case keep up the good work. It's always a worthwhile read!

[Douglas Higginbottom]

thanks for the report Doug.

question, do you know anything about the weight training that they do? obviously its indoors so you cant see it but im wondering if they do it before training or after or what. Inside City sometimes shows them in the gym but ive never read anything about it.

I wouldn't be surprised if some is before and some after but mostly I would think after.I say that because when I was getting inside I was seeing some players come in quite close to when they went out onto the pitches.Probably they would get fined for being late but there certainly wasn't much time apart from getting changed before going outside.

Weight training also I guess might be controlled by the sports science guys and would be carefully detailed for each individual.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Doug I thought it was just mancini that didn't really want you reporting on training. Surely the fact you don't report anything controversial and are always positive in your reports warrants the reinstatement of your pass. Surely between here and bluemoon the fans might be able to influence the club. In any case keep up the good work. It's always a worthwhile read!

Not going to happen.I do think Mancini did get a little paranoid about things but then again with some of the players he had and the way he went about things himself it's no surprise.Seemingly though Pellegrini is also very keen to train in private...at least from me and other fans anyway because the paps take along bigger ladders and go to areas to watch with long lenses and City have taken no steps to block those areas off.

[nottsblue]

Hope your week off was somewhere nice and a good time was had. Back in the saddle quickly which is great for us. Thanks for the updates

[City64]

Great news about Aguero .

[Beefymcfc]

A good read for tired eyes. Cheers Dougie boy, you're a star.

[South Stand Balti]

Cheers Doug that's a great read and am pleased Sergio and Jovetic were involved. Any news on Nasti?

[carolina-blue]

All we are saying is give Doug a long lens ,
Thanks again DH Really appreciate you taking the time .

[Biamp]

Cheers Doug, very pleased to hear that Aguero is back. It's probably the first time we have Nasri, Silva, Aguero, and Jovetic fit at the same time, am I right?

[aaron bond]

Cheers Doug that's a great read and am pleased Sergio and Jovetic were involved. Any news on Nasti?

None hopefully.

[littlebig]

Thanks for this Mr. H