The summer break may have been a shorter one for Michail Antonio and his West Ham United teammates than usual this year, but the No9 believes that will bring a host of benefits down the line.
With this winter’s FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar meaning the Premier League season will come to a six-week halt in November and December, the action gets underway a week sooner than normal as the Hammers take on Manchester City in their Premier League opener at London Stadium on Sunday 7 August.
That means the beach towels have been swapped for beach runs as Antonio and his teammates have been put through their paces on St Andrews' famous West Sands – alongside their intense football and conditioning sessions.
While the Hammers’ all-time record Premier League goalscorer admits he might still quite like to be enjoying a break, he is nevertheless feeling fit, strong and ready to build on the successes of the past couple of seasons.
“We had a lot of games last year, and it feels like an international break just having a little time off and now we’re back in,” he said. “It wasn’t much of a break, but that could help us in building on the momentum we gained last year.
“You can see that in the way the boys have come back, they’re still looking fit and sharp, and it’ll be the same for the boys who were away playing internationals.
“With the summer being shorter, it helps us to stay fit and be ready to get going from the start.”
For Antonio himself, the 2021/22 campaign saw him feature on 47 occasions in Claret and Blue, the highest number of single-season appearances he has made in his seven-year Hammers career to date.
Having enjoyed a consistent, injury-free run, Antonio has the confidence to push to greater heights in the 12 months ahead.
“I’m a person who likes to play games to keep going and keep my body ticking over,” he continued. “Hopefully I can keep going, keep pushing on and have a season like I did last year – and go even better.”
And with the Hammers back in familiar territory in St Andrews – the venue for their opening training camp in each of the past three years – the 32-year-old is happy to be in a place where fine memories have begun.
Now, he is focused on adding to the list of successes that have been achieved since David Moyes returned to the Club as manager.
“It’s a good omen for us that we’re here again!” he smiled. “We’ve been here for the last two years and we’ve done well, so if it isn’t broken, why fix it?!
“Hopefully now we’re back here again we can have a good season and continue to build.
“We had good results in the Premier League and in Europe last year and that gives us extra motivation to go better again next year.
“It was our first season in Europe and we managed to get to the semi-finals [of the UEFA Europa League] which was a massive achievement. A lot of people would never have thought we’d have got there, so hopefully we can go again and push on.
“The hardest thing in football is consistency and being able to keep the levels up and keep pushing on. That’s what we’ve been able to do these last couple of years and that’s what we want to keep on doing.”
