Tony Pulis recalls beer and beach training on Blackpool bonding trips

Former Stoke City manager Tony Pulis says football clubs need to find new ways to build team spirit, recalling how his early playing days brought beer and beach training in Blackpool — and contrasting those trips with modern training camps abroad.

In a BBC Sport column, Pulis reflected on Tottenham’s recent team-bonding trip to Marbella, saying time away can help a manager assess players’ personalities as well as work on tactics and fitness. Spurs had signed 10 players over the summer, according to the BBC.

Pulis said that when he was a young player, teams spent three days in Blackpool before the season. They stayed in a guest house, trained on the beach in the mornings and played seven-a-side football in the afternoons. Players were allowed a few beers in the evening, he wrote, but had to be ready for training at 8am.

He said drinking had been part of football culture across the leagues in the 1970s and 1980s. In his view, players today are more aware of the risks of excess alcohol, while managers have to work harder to help squads connect amid other distractions, including mobile phones.

As a manager, Pulis said, he took teams on pre-season trips to Austria and used demanding exercises to test how players worked together. He also recalled taking Stoke City to an Army training camp near Exmouth, where players tackled outdoor circuits and team challenges.

Pulis’s column also discusses Manchester City’s recent Champions League defeat by Paris St-Germain and the continuing fallout from the Premier League’s financial-rules case against the club. He criticised the length of time it took to reach a verdict and said the situation had cast a shadow over football.