Callum Robinson has praised the experience that he and other young first team players have amassed in such a short space of time.
The PNE squad is filled with promising young players looking to push on, which has only been added to with the recruitments made so far this summer. Callum recently passed 100 career appearances and believes now is the time for what may have been considered as the future of PNE to really come to the fore.
“There’s a lot of players who have a lot of games, now you can look at it and people are near the hundred mark.
“I only checked mine in the summer and I got to 101 and I didn’t realise I’d got that hundredth one, and that’s just myself. Lads like Pearo, who was at Barnsley before and DJ, who has been at a few clubs, have raked them in.
"You could have said that we’re young and for the future but now we’re really kicking in. We’ve learned so much from last season that we can bring into this season.”
New signing Josh Harrop has added to the youthful nature of the squad and Robbo has been full of praise for his former teammate. The pair played together for the England U20s, including a 6-0 rout of Romania where Callum scored a brace.
“I’ve played a few games with him, one that sticks out is the Romania game in Telford that we won 6-0 - he came on and played really well. He’s a good lad, he’s got a lot of talent, natural ability and he’s athletic as well.
“It’s really good we’ve signed another young player who’s obviously hungry. He’ll fit in lovely with the likes of Ben Pearson and Grimmy who have played with him before and Marnick knows him as well. We’ve got a good group for both now and the future.”
Callum was speaking to PNE.com on his return to training at Springfields and he’s raring to go ahead of the new season.
The lads reported for the start of pre-season on Thursday but Callum used some of his time off to begin his preparations for the upcoming campaign.
“I’m really looking forward to it. The last few days have been great and I was buzzing to get back.
“I ended my last holiday in Mexico and I was getting fit whilst I was there – the fitter I got the more I looked forward to it - especially the last few days. To be back with the boys and seeing the new faces - it’s been a great few days.”
As a part of his preparations Robbo used an altitude mask that is designed to restrict the amount of air breathed in whilst exercising, some fans may already be aware of that after the forward shared a photo on social media.
“It basically makes it harder to breath when you’re doing the work. It’s 10x harder because when you need that big breath in it cuts it to about half which makes it really hard - so when you do take it off you feel a lot fitter for it.
"It’s probably the fittest I’ve come back in the preseason, normally I rest up but this season I tried to do a bit before I came back. It’s a really good thing to use and I think any athlete should really have a look at it and if you want to be fit for anything then I would say do that.”
Now that he’s returned to training it’s time to get down to business for the forward and he even had a word for whoever our new manager is, saying: “I can’t really say I’m looking forward to the yo-yo but each fitness test we’ve been doing over the last few days, and will do, makes you want to get it in the bank as quick as possible.
“These early days you just want to get them all in the system, then it’s about getting going with Bamber Bridge on Friday and then the trip to Ireland.
“Whoever comes in will know that they have a fresh group, a humble group and people that want to work and get better - which is the main thing - along with a bit of experience as well.
“We know our faults from last season - the start and finish wasn’t good enough - but the 32 in the middle were great and hopefully we can bring that into this season. We will learn from last season, we want to start as bright as possible.
“We’re doing the extra work out there to make sure we’re right for the start of the season. We’ve got tough fixtures straight away but every game in this league is really tough no matter who you’re up against. I’m really looking forward to the next couple of weeks and the start of the season.”
Join Callum at Deepdale this season by purching a 2017/18 season ticket! Full details can be found here.