Sheffield United are spending this week based at the Portuguese national training centre Cidade  do Futebol

Sheffield United arrived in Portugal last night for their week-long warm-weather training camp. They are returning to the Cidade do Futebol, which is the national training base and home of the Portuguese FA.

It’s where the Portuguese national team train and, understandably, houses the country’s best facilities. It’s the second time manager Paul Heckingbottom and his players are being based at the venue, having spent seven days here last summer.

It will again be a dry camp, with no alcohol on site and with the club’s own chef travelling with them as well, the focus is on healthy living, hard work on the training ground and team bonding.

The latter will be particularly important for the club’s new arrivals. Anis Ben Slimane joined last week and will find their stay in Lisbon important as he looks to settle quickly into his new surroundings. Heckingbottom was also hoping Slimane would be joined by more new signings.

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Sheffield United were working on finalising deals for Benie Traore and Yasser Larouci at the time of publishing and the Blades boss was confident at least one would join them at the complex in Algés. That was the case last year, with Tommy Doyle flying out with the squad and Anel Ahmedhodzic joining them midway through.

Head of Performance Tom Little has overseen the plan for the coming days and says it will be a mix of hard work and pleasure.

“While we are together we are getting a lot of work into the lads,” he told Yorkshire Live. “The rehab lads are over as well, which is great for team bonding, having everyone there. We have got a game on the Wednesday and we will be doing double and in some cases triple sessions.

“There will be some work before breakfast, a morning football session where there might be some strength training to add on to that and in the evening at 5pm when it is starting to get a little cooler we will be out on the grass as well.

“There will be enjoyment there with team bonding but that will be in and around hard work. On the Monday we will start training around 10am and have a strength session as well and be back out on the grass at 5. Then it will be a double session on Tuesday, a light session on Wednesday day, which will be tactical and technical with the game on the evening, and then it will be a light session on Thursday morning.

“We’ll do some bonding in the afternoon and have a triple session on Friday before having an in-house game playing each other on a full-size pitch on Saturday before we come back.”

Last season’s visit was their first to the sports complex and it coincided with a number of guests dropping by to use the facilities. Cristiano Ronaldo, who was training away from Manchester United at the time and has his own room there, was training on his own, while other Portuguese internationals, such as AC Milan’s Rafael Leão, also popped in to keep on top of their summer levels.

Such was the impression the venue made on Heckingbottom, his coaching staff and players that they immediately requested this season’s tour be held here. With the hotel rooms, gym and pitches all on site, as Little explains, it has everything they need.

“It’s the proximity of your training environment,” he added. “You have a beautiful hotel and you literally open the window and walk out and you are on to the pitches. It’s just that locality all the time and that allows you to have a solid training environment all the time. It allows for more frequent training and allows us to be around each other all the time.

“The facilities are excellent, pitches top class. There are two full-size pitches to choose from and a lot of room in between to work on the fitness. The gym is good and recovery facilities, such as the pool, plunge pool and heat-based treatments, are excellent. And because of the fact you are just there, the lads are in them all the time.

“They are constantly using the recovery facilities because they are there, whereas at home you are just wanting to get home and they haven’t got that responsibility that you have when you get home, like family. You’re not driving after training so because of that you’re just hanging around the facilities all the time so therefore you are using them a lot.”