What Birmingham City players can expect from Chris Davies’ training in Austria

Chris Davies is taking on Birmingham City players – and will soon have a week’s training camp in Austria to put his ideas into action.

The Blues handed Davies his first managerial job at the start of June and the 39-year-old met all his players for the first time on Monday. So far, Davies has enjoyed a stellar coaching career under Brendan Rodgers and Ange Postecoglou.

He has appointed two new coaches to his staff in the form of assistant Ben Petty and Nathan Gardiner, who left Spurs for the Blues on Thursday, but it would be foolish to think Davies will not be a driving force on the training ground.

Even under Rodgers and Postecoglou, Davies was the manager who led the way on the training ground at Celtic, Leicester City and Spurs. But what can the Blues’ players expect from Davies when pre-season kicks off next week?

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“We’ve never had the same session close together,” explained former Leicester winger Marc Albrighton. “For a footballer it’s great because you don’t know what you’re doing. It could be something new every day and it keeps it fresh.

“He worked a lot on possession and patterns of play, in the early years everything was clear in the way he wanted to play. He asked a lot of players, which they all did in that regime.”

Prior to Spurs and Leicester, Davies was a key influence at Celtic during their historic unbeaten season in 2016/17. In fact, Davies referred to Celtic’s preparation and planning for all games, not just the big Champions League nights, during conversations with the Blues hierarchy before landing the job.

Former Blues loanee Scott Allan was one of the players coached by Davies at Celtic and managed to shed more light on his coaching technique. “There were clear instructions,” Allan said. “There was good clarity in how the team had to play on and off the ball.

“We were prepared for any situation that would arise in a game, whether it was 10 men … We were very well prepared and very professional.

“Actually, training was very enjoyable. It’s probably the most enjoyable practice I’ve had in my career as far as coming in every day. You never heard a grunt, which you sometimes do.”