Jakirovic makes key demand of pre-season trip as Tigers face crucial period

Sergej Jakirovic says a cooler climate is the reason Hull City will spend the bulk of their summer training camp in Slovenia, rather than Istanbul.

For the last three years, City have gone to the epicentre of the Turkish Football Association in Riva, just outside Istanbul, and with the humidity, it can feel painfully hot with temperatures well into the 30s.

In Slovenia, however, a milder climate means the days are not quite so hot, and the humidity is not such an issue for the players, which Jakirovic believes will better suit his squad.

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City fly out from Humberside Airport on Monday morning and will spend nine days at the Play Green training centre just outside Maribor, playing games against Konyaspor and Rizespor.

They'll then head to Istanbul for the weekend, and while there, Jakirovic's men will train once at Kasimpasa's plush training centre, where they played the Turkish Super Lig side last summer, before facing them in a friendly at the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Stadium on August 1. They'll fly home the following day.

Jakirovic hopes his squad will be boosted by the arrival of some new faces, with Oscar Zambrano, Elliot Stroud, Matt Targett and Konstantinos Tzolakis all expected to arrive during the trip.

"The first idea was that we would be in Maribor for eight days and then go to play one game in Istanbul, but now we will be away for around two weeks, and after the pre-season camp, the players will have three days off, so they will have a little bit of rest," Jakirovic told Hull Live.

"This is normal, this is our job, so we have to do this, and I hope we will perform well there. There will be heavy legs, I can say it like this, but it's not about the result, it's about how we will play there, and maybe somebody will join us while we are there, so we will see what happens.

"It's better weather, it's colder (in Slovenia). Last year in Istanbul, everything was perfect, but it was very hot, very hot, so because of that (we have changed)."

Mo Belloumi suffered with hamstring trouble after returning from his ACL injury, as did Liam Millar. Oli McBurnie didn't have a proper pre-season and missed a chunk of the season, while other players also had various struggles.

Jakirovic hopes the likes of Millar, Belloumi, McBurnie and others will benefit from being under his watch all summer, while his desire to get as many transfers done as early as possible will be crucial for the same reasons because they cannot afford the same issues in the Premier League.

"It's very important," he said of getting players a full pre-season. "Oli (McBurnie), Mo Belloumi and Liam Millar all missed the last pre-season, so I think the players will feel much better when they go to pre-season."

Millar has been given two weeks off to enjoy a break after Canada's exit from the World Cup, but will join the squad in Maribor.

The winger joined up with Jesse Marsch's squad within hours of City's play-off final win at Wembley, and made it to the knockout stages of the tournament, before the co-host's exit in the round of 32 against Morocco.

"This is normal (Millar's break). I also saw that some players, after the World Cup, got a maximum of 12 days off, so I gave him two weeks, which is normal because after Wembley, he flew immediately to Canada."

Hull Live will be the only English media with City during every step of their pre-season tour, and you can follow all our updates in print and online.

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