Kevin Gage's Sheffield United Column, Part Two: Get your passports ready, Blades... trips abroad might become a regular occurance soon!

Today, he remembers his own experiences of going away during his playing days, and the benefits and disadvantages of doing so.

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In my playing days, bonding wasn’t achieved in places like Dubai. With Dave Bassett at Wimbledon we got a regular week's pre-season in Scandanavia somewhere, and an end-of-season jolly to Magaluf, but mid-season breaks where usually taken courtesy of the British Army in various camps around the UK.

At Sheffield United, Bassett continued with the occasional Army trips albeit they were less intense and slightly more comfortable than those early ones, and we also were treated to a stay in Southport for some reason on another mid-season break. There must have been some confusion in the booking though as we were in a run-down typical seaside guest house rather than a luxurious hotel. Strange that, isn’t it?

But one mid-season break beats all the others hands-down in my career, as Graham Taylor at Aston Villa executed a quite brilliant plan of action to trick a whole squad on one memorable occasion. It's a long story, with some very cleverly worked fine detail, but basically the whole squad was told to report to Villa Park for a trip away, but told to pack a case “for every eventuality” - i.e. we had no idea where we were going! Despite our best efforts to find out, no office staff would let on and the football staff would just smirk at us when we asked!

Cases were duly packed with all sorts of appropriate clothes...beachwear, t-shirts, shorts, big coats, waterproofs, jumpers, etc etc and we boarded the coach and set off down the M6, hopefully en route to an airport for a flight to the sun! The coach travelled all the way down the M1, onto the M25 and we turned off towards Heathrow. Excitement grew at this stage, and as the coach turned into the slip road for Terminal One we started to get our things together and prepare to get off.

The coach slowed to a virtual crawl, and then instead of stopping, started to drive off again. We got back onto the slip road and drove out of Heathrow - to hoots of derision from the squad at the back of the coach towards the coaching staff at the front, who we suddenly realised hadn’t moved a muscle all this time. Clever...very clever.

Back on the M25, we travelled all the way to the south coast, (via another brief trip around Gatwick as another diversion!) and ended up turning into the gates of Pontins Holiday Camp at Camber Sands, where we spent a few days in freezing-cold antiquated 1960s style chalets that were straight off the set from ‘Hi-Di-Hi’, complete with rickety beds, a terrible bathroom and an electric heater that would never have passed a PAT test today!

As it turned out the camp was packed with young-at-heart OAPs who helped to make the whole experience quite wonderful as we joined in the tea-dances, bingo and evening cabaret with gusto! Another escape committee was formed, however, and more bonding occurred in the local town as the night fell!

I sometimes thank God that the camera phone hadn’t yet been invented when I was playing, and that social media wasn’t a thing either! It's a different world now, and certainly a vastly different global football world, with eyes and ears seemingly on players 24/7. Is it as much fun? Probably, yes to be honest. Whether you’re in Plymouth, Pontins or Dubai, the players will have enjoyed their time away from the daily grind, done some bonding and come back refreshed and ready for action. After all, there are more trips ahead if we can maintain our form, get results and stay in that top six. They will involve airports, too, so passports at the ready Blades cos Europe’s on the cards!

Book me a seat. It’s time for some more bonding!

Kev Gage owns The Manor House hotel/bar/café, Dronfield. Find him on Twitter: @gageykev