Gary Cahill completed his first 90 minutes of the summer on Thursday, and flew home to London feeling positive after a fortnight in Asia.
Cahill partnered John Terry in central defence in the first half of our 8-1 win in Jakarta, before being joined by Tomas Kalas in the second, and after the game was delighted to have gone the distance.
‘I’m pleased to get some minutes under my belt, this time is all about getting fit and sharp and more game time, and it meant it was easy to sleep on the way home!’ the defender joked.
‘I feel okay. The aim of the three games is to get stronger and stronger and we’ve done that well as a team. We’re starting to see the manager getting his ideas across and it was a convincing win in the end, so we’re pleased to finish it off like that.
‘It’s been a successful trip. We’re going home a lot fitter than when we arrived and I think we’ve improved game on game. The lads are starting to look very sharp so it’s been a great two weeks.’
There are a few days of rest now before training at Cobham and another trip abroad, this time to America where the team will play four games in 10 days to complete our pre-season preparations.
‘It’s intense but you have to cram your training in and get fit,’ the 27-year-old said. ‘I’m looking forward to spending a couple of days at home and then we go again with four games over there. It’s all about getting games in now.
‘The young lads with us have been phenomenal and have done really well in the games, but we welcome back the experienced boys from their holidays and the US will be a lot tougher test for us. It will be a more experienced squad but there will be some tough games.
‘We had a lot of times last year where we played at least two matches a week, so this will be good for us to play four games in 10 days and we have a big squad, so I’m sure there will be some rotation and a lot of competition for places.’