This is my first blog post on Insider, you may have seen me mentioned last week, after winning the Jobsite penalty shootout competition. My name is Christian, I work in Jobsite’s Marketing team and due to last week’s fancy footwork I had the privilege of attending an exclusive day at Portsmouth FC’s training ground on Monday.

After arriving 20 minutes late due to traffic, the humiliation was made worse as my S-reg Vauxhall Corsa entered the car park of dreams…BMWs, Mercedes, Porches; it was like Jeremy Clarkson’s driveway. Thankfully fellow Jobsiter Paul and the 2 lucky Jobsite clients (Richard from STR and Drew from Eurotech International) were also at the mercy of the Motorway traffic.

We were greeted on arrival with our own full Portsmouth FC training kit consisting of shorts, socks, top, trousers, jersey and rain jacket. Then headed to the food lounge where Hermann Hreidarsson chatted to us mid table tennis match, whilst players arrived for their ‘hard working’ day (if a player is late and arrives after 10am, he is fined £1000).

Fitness Coach, Chris Neville took us to watch the 1st team training session. Chris provided us with some great insight into a premiership footballer’s life and some great stories from his time as an England coach including an amusing Peter Crouch ‘doing the robot’ story.

Down at the gym we learnt about the players workouts and how fitness levels, general health and nutrition are carefully monitored and controlled. Then we met the guy with possibly the coolest job ever (watching football all day); Dougie, head of the Analyst Team, though he was quick to play down the awesome job description, insisting it was hard work. Dougie’s team records every football match that is on the telly for reference and training. They also create DVDs for each player after a match, showing their strengths and weaknesses which the players can then use to improve their game.

We had lunch with the players and manager Paul Hart came in for a chat. Regretting having such a big lunch, all 4 of us were taken on to the pitches again and put through our paces. We got some useful insider tips on how we could go about improving our speed and agility and a detailed fitness report on everything from average heart rates to carbohydrate consumption, (England Team here I come!).

So thanks to Pompey FC and Jobsite for a Premiership-class day, only regret was having to get back into my non-premiership Corsa instead of the Mercedes!

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