Blackwell says no to America

Last updated : 10 May 2008 By Jamie Furniss

Long Journey's to the US meant that their was little time for preparation for Blackwell and his set of players if the Blades were to take pre-season in the States. There is no details yet of where the Blades are to take pre-season.

Blackwell explains:"There were thoughts on going to the States but then we found out the games woule have been on Astroturf. We don't play on plastic so i cancelled it.

"We want to play our games on grass so we are looking possibly at Hungary or Holland, plus a few local games as well."

Blackwell has already experienced what it is like to take a team abroad to play friendly matches. He travelled to Ferencvaros a couple of months ago with a number of first team players.

He said:"The training facilities and pitch etc were very good over there (Ferencvaros) so that would not be a problem, plus it is only two hours away which means we could train on the same day as we travel.

"I don't want to lose valuable training time on long journeys and if we went to America we would lose four days in total, and that is too much in pre-season."