Sporting Director José Anigo has gone over the choices made for the pre-season preparation. Pre-season which starts on the 25th of June.

José, when do the inter season preparations start?
Thye started just after the winter break. We started thinking about where we wante to be doing the preparations. The choice of pitches and hotels … It’s a big job but we’re used to it. This year we will be changing locations and going to Evian we have have found some top notch installations and a hotel with people who will welcome us in the best possible circumstances. It was like that last year (at Capbreton and Divonne-les-Bains) but we wanted to change things around so as not to be in the same routine.

What things need to be respected?
First of all we have to find the ideal place for our preparations. A calm place with a good pitch, good turf and a little cooler than our region which is very hot during the summer. We’re going to stay there for around 10 days, so we’ve chosen a place where the players will feel good whilst going about their work.

Does the club bring in help from the outside to organise the pre-season preparations?
We’ve called in Jean Garcia who is incharge of the compamny MCI Sports to deal with things. We say what we want and choose the hotels with him. Concerning the friendly games and how we want things to go it’s Jean Garcia and Stéphane Saliu, form the OM staff, who put everything in place.

There have been changes this year, only one traiing camp instead of two and friendly games throughout the region, what are the reasons behind this?
The reasons are quite simple. Some coaches like two camps in different climates. Eric (Gerets) just wanted one as he believes it’s enough for the cohesion of the group. These camps are often all about bringing the squad together, as far as work is concerned, and the complicity which is created when you are together on a daily basis. The conditions at the Commanderie are interesting as well even if it is a bit hotter there. As far as the friendly games are concerned, we wanted them in the region as we wanted to show the team to the supporters, even if our supporters from around France have as much consideration as the ones from Marseille. We didn’t want to make things difficult by having long trips either. We’ve chosen the options that correspond to what we wanted.

How do you choose the opponents for the friendly games?
We decide on that in fonction to where we are in our preparations. At the start we won’t play against a big team as it serves no purpose. As things get further along the line, the level of the opponents gets stronger. We’ve tried to build things up gradually. There is a good mix with more games than usual as we will be playing 8 opponents.

Does a good pre-season make for a successful season?
If we prepare as well as we would like to, then of course we wil have a good season. When all the ingredients come together during the preparation, everything is in place for the team to start off well. If pre-season goes well, the good work will continue into the season. So, it’s up to us to make sure everything goes well.

This time around there will be things at stake very quickly with the preliminary round of the Champions League which takes place in mid August …
Yes, our first big objective will be around the 15th of August for the preliminary round and that will arrive very quickly. There will be no time to hang around thinking we have jokers up our sleeves. If we lose, we’re out. We will have to be ready very quickly in order to deal with this game.