Arsenal's Former Fitness Chief on Saka, Injuries and the Calendar

On this edition of the ArsenalVision Podcast, Elliot is joined by Darren Burgess, Juventus Director of Performance and Arsenal's former Head of High Performance, to talk about who really decides when a player is fit, whether the football calendar can be managed at all, how training and rotation have changed, and what it all means for young stars like Bukayo Saka and Max Dowman. Chapter timings below.

Chapters:
00:00 Intro Music
02:46 From 93 Rejection Letters to the World Cup
07:57 Arsenal's Move Away From the Wenger Model
11:46 Bringing Data Into Elite Performance
16:14 Who Decides If a Player Is Fit to Play?
18:53 Why Clubs Turn Over Their Performance Staff
24:02 Injuries as a Lagging Indicator
28:01 Is the Football Calendar Manageable?
33:11 Rotation, Rhythm and Periodization
36:43 Finding Time to Train the Muscle
39:44 What the GPS Vests Actually Tell You
41:23 How Training Should Be Run, and the Drill to Ban
44:38 Saka's Debut and Developing Max Dowman
48:06 Is There a Finite Amount of Football in a Body?
50:20 Saka's First Four Steps and a Move Inside
55:18 Mental Fatigue and the Pressure of a Title Race

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Original theme music by Paul Hepker

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