Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is looking forward to preparations for the new campaign as the club look to rectify the big disappointments of last season.
The City squad began life under Manuel Pellegrini on Monday as they returned for pre-season training.
In an interview with the club, centre-back Kompany said: “It’s great to be back, I’ve been looking forward to this for a while!
“Football is what we love to do, so I’m pretty happy to be here and the weather is perfect at the moment, so it’s great to finally start the season.
“It was also nice to start work with the new manager and I think his approach with the team today was really good.
“It’s important now to try and improve on the last campaign and make sure that whatever the new manager brings in, that we try and make it our own as quick as possible.”
The squad are set to fly out to South Africa this evening as part of a pre-season tour that will feature the Nelson Mandela Football Invitational, the Barclays Asia Trophy and a friendly against Arsenal in Helsinki.
It will be Kompany’s first visit to South Africa having missed out on the club’s visit in 2009 due to injury.
He said: “I’m really excited about the trip to South Africa – symbolically it’s a big thing for me as Nelson Mandela is one of my heroes and examples.
“The squad had the pleasure of meeting him on the last tour, but just to be there this time is important for me even though I know it is a difficult time as he is in poor health.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming season the skipper is determined to improve on last year’s efforts.
The skipper has conceded that the standard of competition will be high but is committed to setting the teams sights on trophies in the season ahead.
The Belgian international said: “We’re at a big club, so the only goal we can have is to win trophies.
“It’s an important year for everyone; we have a lot to put right after last season and internationally it’s a World Cup year, so there are so many reasons to perform well.”
“We’ve got the squad to do that, but a lot of hard work needs to be done first.”
Image courtesy of citytv, via YouTube, with thanks.
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