How do Prem teams travel to fixtures

[BlackST]

Liverpool players for home games seem to drive to Melwood themselves and then go to the Hope Street hotel via an Ellisons Coach. Presumably have food there and then to Anfield once again by coach.

Away games in London they arrive at Lime Street station via coach, once again probably parking at Melwood, and get the train from Lime St to Euston.

[anonymous-user]

Thankyou4calling said:

I'm sure there's no hard and fast rule and travelling to away games will have its own issues but for home I don't think they'd generally stay the night before.

Each club is different but many teams do stay together before a home game.

City definitely do.

Hoever, you are right that games are now played at different times and on different days so there is a specific regime for each set of circumstances.

In summary: most premiership players are treated like primary school kids on their first school trip.

[AMG01]

Rosscow said:

It was well documented the other week how Spurs flew to their away match at Bournemouth. 20 minute flight instead of a 2.5 hour coach trip.

Arsenal also got it in the neck for flying to play Norwich a few seasons ago. Man Utd have used the train a number of times to travel to games in London.

[DMN]

Why just limit it to EPL teams?


At York, most of the players don't live in the City, so they will meet the team coach at a motorway service station. No point having people travel up to York, only to change back again. Because traveling on coach's day in, day out isn't good for atheletes, we try and travel the day before where it warrants it. So any game in London or further afield means the squad will travel down the morning before, train in the afternoon and then spend the night in a hotel. Returning straight after the game. The exception being evening games, unless its very far (Exeter etc).

When Billy McEwen was our Manager (good friends with Sir Alex and just as shouty), if the players where late to the meeting point, the bus left without them.

[jesta1865]

desolate said:

In summary: most premiership players are treated like primary school kids on their first school trip.

i found this particularly amusing as my wife is a primary teacher and last year had an ex pro footballer as a student (training to become a teacher) she said he was great with the kids, but he always left checking they were all there and safe even after break etc to others as he was used to others doing that for him.

i think it took her 3 weeks to get it into him that he was the responsible party, after years of being cosseted himself.

he wasn't a PL star by any means, lower leagues etc.

she also said he wasn't your normal media portrayed idiot footballer, he was intelligent and quick witted. so strike another blow to the daily wails stereotype-a-tron

[Timbo_S2]

Thankyou4calling said:

I don't know where your info comes from but it sounds the most likely of all the posts.

Those who say players stay at a hotel the night before a home game I think are misinformed. Many teams have two home games a week and if one of those kicks off at 7.45 that's way too long to be away from home in my opinion.

I'm sure there's no hard and fast rule and travelling to away games will have its own issues but for home I don't think they'd generally stay the night before.

Wife works for the club. I know its probably different at bigger clubs in bigger cities, where travel from home to the ground can be a problem and vary massively (didn't Bale still live in Wales when playing for Tottenham?)...

Part of the charm of playing for a smaller PL club...

[SHutchinson]

I live in Newcastle. There's a pretty smart hotel behind my flat. So far I've seen Manchester City and Arsenal going for a walk up and down my street the night before playing. The night before the last home game of last season I saw the Newcastle team themselves walking up and down. I don't know how they travelled to the city but there was a huge luxury coach (always the same local-ish firm) parked like a twunt on the kerb on each occasion.

[SpeckledJim]

Thankyou4calling said:

I don't know where your info comes from but it sounds the most likely of all the posts.

Those who say players stay at a hotel the night before a home game I think are misinformed. Many teams have two home games a week and if one of those kicks off at 7.45 that's way too long to be away from home in my opinion.

I'm sure there's no hard and fast rule and travelling to away games will have its own issues but for home I don't think they'd generally stay the night before.

I worked for clubs in all 4 top leagues. The majority of PL clubs, and some of the parachute-payment clubs in the Championship WILL be safely hidden in a hotel away from their screaming kids and whining/horny wives the night before a game. Home or away.

If a club spends £1,000,000 a year on hotels,that's still less than half the earnings from gaining a single mid-table point in the PL. Or less than a quarter of the cost of a sleepy goalkeeper conceding a late goal that turns a win into a draw.

The hard thing to get your head around, when considering the huge amounts clubs spend on what seems like totally profligate waste, is that all the clubs are doing it, and if not doing it costs you just a few points, or even just a couple of goals, then you've been penny-wise and pound-foolish.

ETA: I think this is something that our home-grown Chairmen have struggled with. Rich, but perhaps not daft rich, and crucially - self-made.

Even if they can afford to run their clubs like the Russians, Arabs and Far Eastern billionaires do, they often can't bring themselves to do it.

Which is wrong-headed.

That's how mad football is. Being sober, parsimonious and sensible is wrong-headed.

Edited by SpeckledJim on Tuesday 10th November 11:18

[JuniorD]

BlackST said:

Liverpool players for home games seem to drive to Melwood themselves and then go to the Hope Street hotel via an Ellisons Coach. Presumably have food there and then to Anfield once again by coach.

Away games in London they arrive at Lime Street station via coach, once again probably parking at Melwood, and get the train from Lime St to Euston.

And meanwhile their houses get burgaled

SHutchinson said:

I live in Newcastle. There's a pretty smart hotel behind my flat. So far I've seen Manchester City and Arsenal going for a walk up and down my street the night before playing. The night before the last home game of last season I saw the Newcastle team themselves walking up and down.

Probably on the sniff for underwearless Toon poontang

[Cheib]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Cheib said:

Certainly at Arsenal the players make their own way to home games.

Away games can be fly/coach/train.

Ray Parlour said differently on the radio the other day, that they still meet at a hotel (was Hilton Docklands in his day) the day before the game and travel by coach to the match.

All the players can be seen driving from the car park under the stadium after the game so maybe they drive there the day before the game then. Kind of makes sense given a lot of players have young kids etc, broken sleep the night before a game to be avoided!

[andy118run]

Timbo_S2 said:

Can only comment on Norwich;

Players have a light training session the day before, then an afternoon team briefing. Afterwards, they go home, for a 3pm kick off they have to be at the ground by 11.45. Travel arrangements are upto them (most drive themselves, some get dropped off or share exec. transport). Norwich, being a small city, means that all players live within 1/2 hour of the ground anyway.

Away games, team meets at training ground and travel together the day before. Anything more than about 3-4 hours on a coach means they fly.

This seems pretty much spot on, have followed Norwich for the last 20-30 years and their routine has not changed much.

Back in the day I used to collect autographs on matchday and their arrival time was a bit later than 11.45, though not a lot.

Obviously air travel is a relatively recent luxury, I remember staying in the same Middlesborough Holiday Inn as the likes of Gunn, Townsend etc many years ago prior to an away game and they certainly didn't fly up there.

The only thing I would add is that many players still retain their properties away from Norfolk - Grabban lives down in Surrey, O'Neil somewhere well south, Hughton lived down in the home counties. Maybe they rent/buy/ stay in a hotel as required within easy reach of the city as well

[uk66fastback]

So what people are saying is that the days of Stan Bowles nipping into the bookies at ten to three in his kit are long gone ...

If indeed it ever happened

[AMG01]

AMG01 said:

Arsenal also got it in the neck for flying to play Norwich a few seasons ago. Man Utd have used the train a number of times to travel to games in London.

Doing it again, can see why, esp after European away game during the week

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/ar...

[Wacky Racer]

I met Bert Trautmann a few years back, and he told me he used to travel to City matches with the fans on the 53 bus.

[stuartmmcfc]

Wacky Racer said:

that was just for the derby