Coventry City manager Aidy Boothroyd has spoken out about why he has banned spectators from the club training ground at Ryton.
Since Boothroyd arrived at Coventry, he has overseen the erection of an 8' security fence around the facility to stop members of the public from watching the training sessions.
Some supporters of the club are unhappy about being barred from watching their heroes train, but Boothroyd is adamant that training sessions will remain private affairs from now on.
"I understand that we have some very loyal fans who like to watch what's going on," said Boothroyd to the CT, "and I've heard that some of them are upset, but this is private property - I wouldn't turn up and sit inside your house without asking you and I don't want people coming down to watch everything we do. Saturday or Tuesday is where they can come and watch us."
"There will be time to have an open training session, probably at the Ricoh and I'll be quite happy to do that, but that time hasn't come yet because I'm still getting used to the players and they're getting used to me."
"The last thing we need is to have anybody's ego pricked because people are there watching when I have to shout and bawl at them and the next thing you know it's on some website. I don't think the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United allow that sort of thing and if I let every Tom Dick and Harry in, or Harriet; I don't want to be sexist and upset anybody else, I wouldn't feel comfortable and it would make it harder for us to be successful."
Boothroyd hinted that one of the reason why he is reluctant to have outside observers watching training is because of the combative nature of the practise matches as players attempt to prove they deserve a starting place on match days.
"Competition is so important," he explained. "We've got some fantastic footballers here, probably too many at the moment, but they're all fighting for a place, particularly down the spine of the team with the centre backs, central midfielders and centre-forwards, so the training is fierce. That's not a problem and I don't lose sleep over it, far from it, I think it's healthy."
"To get the best out of yourself you have to have somebody competing against you every day. You have to know that if you're not at your best somebody else is waiting to take your place."
Boothroyd explained that his training methods are not all bawling out and giving the players a hard time, he also recognises the need to the quiet word, a pat on the back and a lot of praise. The velvet glove, but with an iron fist inside is the preferred approach of Boothroyd on the training ground.
"People tend to think that footballers just turn up in their big cars, train for a couple of hours and that's it, said Boothroyd, but they are human being. They have needs and problems like everybody else. I and my staff have got to use our eyes, our ears and our experience to keep tabs on that."
"People like Steve Ogrizovic, Steve Harrison, the guys in the kit room and the medical room are vital because they pick up on things which might influence my thinking."