Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell has told the club’s official website that the ‘footballs will be out’ on the first day of pre-season tomorrow.

Artell believes that the work the players have continuously done over the summer will out them in good stead for their return to full-time training.

The Crewe boss is understandably open for players to get used to kicking a ball again and he notes that the days of ‘beasting’ a player over the next six weeks are now old school.

David told the club’s official website: “The players will do their fitness work, their running and their sessions in the gym but they are footballers, so they should be playing football.

“We will get the footballs back out on the first day. I think that is very important. They need to get back to developing their touch and being aware of their positioning on the pitch.

He added: “The days of the players running themselves to exhaustion to get excess weight off are over. The players look after themselves much better nowadays and that is why we put the sessions on in throughout the summer. It keeps them ticking over.”