AFC Bournemouth
AFC Bournemouth defender Chris Mepham makes a pre-season diary entry on his summer, World Cup qualification and the Portugal tour.
Over pre-season, Cherries first-team players will be making first-person diary entries to give supporters a behind-the-scenes look at training ahead of the Premier League season getting underway on 6th August.
It’s been a busy schedule for me over the summer, we had five matches with Wales and had the all-important World Cup-deciding one which, luckily, we won.
There was a great mood in the Wales camp. They’re a great bunch and I think a lot of us had our eyes fixed on those Austria and the Ukraine games.
It was important that we got through and, fortunately, we did and now we’ve got a very exciting tournament to look forward to.
On a personal level, I got engaged as well – so on and off the pitch it’s been amazing!
My summer was a little bit broken up, but we got a little bit of time off before the Wales squad met up, then we were away for a month, and I had a little bit more time before coming back for pre-season.
It was nice though, when I was away from football it meant that I did need to relax and properly make the most of the time off.
Now that I’m back for pre-season I feel in a good place. Obviously, when you come back later there is a certain checklist that you need to tick off and you get slowly integrated back in with the team.
The training has been tough but I’m feeling the rewards for having a busy off-season.
I came back in for the 1600m and with that being the first day back, I thought I’d slowly work my way back in but it was quite an intense way to return! I got a good time though, and that’s down to training a lot over the summer and keeping myself ticking.
It’s important that, when you do come back in, you don’t feel separated from the lads and don’t feel miles away from them.
We go away to Portugal next week and I’m looking forward to that. I had a bit of a tough one last year and I missed the Marbella trip because myself and my partner got Covid, so it was back-to-back isolations for me!
It was a bit broken up and then, ultimately, it meant that I had to train here and miss the training camp, so I’m really looking forward to this one. It’s a nice change of scenery, it’s warm-weather training and we can do some bonding with the new lads.
Looking ahead to the start of the Premier League in August, your support is going to be massive for us next season. Last season showed that it can be a tough place to come when the atmosphere is on it.
I think there were many games last season where you really helped and you were the 12th man, especially in that Forest game at the end of the season.
As an away player coming here for that Forest game, it was always going to be tough for them and it just shows the importance that you have.
We need to make sure that the Vitality is a fortress for us and I’m sure that’s going to be where we pick up as many points as possible.
You’ll be a huge help and, ultimately, it’s down to us players to give you something to shout about.
- Chris
