Jarrod Bowen has underlined the importance of West Ham United’s trip to the Black Forest of southern Germany, and says the week-long training camp will play a crucial part in the team’s Premier League preparation.
The Hammers returned to Rush Green training ground on Monday for five days of medical testing, fitness and ball work, and now embark on the next stage of their preparations for the 2025/26 season with the squad set to fly to southern Germany on Saturday, for a training camp that will conclude with our first pre-season match against Grasshopper Club Zürich on Saturday 19 July.
For captain and newlywed Bowen, who is a strong believer that an enormous effort in pre-season is vital in order to get the body right for the strenuous rigours of a Premier League campaign, he says this trip presents a fantastic opportunity both on and off the pitch for him and his team-mates to step up their pre-season preparations while also spending valuable time as a group before the new season kicks off.
“It’s exciting, and I'm sure it'll be a really tough camp,” said Bowen. “It's a really important period, and I think you get as much out of it as you put in.
“It’s one of those where you know that the tough camps are coming, and we finish it with a friendly against Grasshopper [Club Zürich] as well, which will be really good. It’s an opportunity for everyone in the group to be part of it and spend time with one another because you're with each other every single day for a whole week before we go to the United States.
“We talk about a season being ten months long, but I think these periods of pre-season really shape you for that, strengthen you up and make you ready for the physical demands of a season. I think these first few weeks in pre-season are a massive part of that - to put the work in and work with the manager - and I get the feeling that everyone is keen for that as well.
“I think pre-season is also about building trustful relationships with, for example, the players that are coming back from each of their loan spells and building a really strong team spirit, and Germany is a great opportunity to do that.
“For the Head Coach (Graham Potter) to have a full six weeks working with us will be really good, and to have a full pre-season schedule will be beneficial for the players, the Head Coach and his staff as well. That's why I think it's an exciting time ahead for the Club.”
Like our pre-season fixture against Hungarian champions Ferencváros in Kitzbühel last season, the fixture at GC/Campus against Gerald Scheiblehner’s side offers Bowen and his team-mates a unique opportunity to test themselves against other styles of football and against European opposition, and our No20 believes it will stand the side in good stead for the season ahead.
“I think it’s similar to when you play European football,” added Bowen. “You're not too familiar with how they play or what they're about but, I think once you play them, it's a totally different challenge from the Premier League.
“It's a challenge in a positive way because you see a different style of football, a different brand of football and a different intensity. But it's one of those games where they're a really good opposition and really good, respectively, in the Swiss Super League as well.
“I think it's a really good fixture for us to have that taste of unfamiliar opposition, and to play in a different country against Grasshoppers will be a really good challenge and a good test for us.
“It’s our first pre-season game, and we know those first pre-season games are always difficult because you've had six or seven weeks of not playing a proper game. You can't replicate in training what the game intensity is, so it’s going to be a challenge, but we want to win the game even if it's a pre-season friendly, and having that mentality of winning in pre-season can be really beneficial when you start the season.”
For ticket information for our pre-season matches, including the Boyle Sports Cup clash with LOSC Lille at London Stadium on Saturday 9 August, click HERE.
