‘Best I’ve seen’: Key Burnley figure provides fascinating insight into ‘meticulous’ pre-season planning

The Clarets are in the midst of their summer planning just three weeks out from their season opener against Manchester City.

Vincent Kompany’s attention to detail was central to Burnley’s Championship triumph last season and according to one of his right-hand men, that work has only intensified.

“To when I was a player, pre-seasons have changed so much now. They’ve gone completely full circle,” Jackson told BBC Radio Lancashire.

“I don’t think there’s as much running up hills and that sort of thing you used to do years ago.

“The planning here is meticulous, it’s the best I’ve seen since I’ve been involved in football as a player and coaching.

“Everyone has a role within that, whether it’s sports science, the guys organising the sessions – there isn’t a lot of individual running, it’s all with the ball but it’s done with an intensity and it’s all measured to get them to a place where they’re ready to play.

“You go back to the planning of it all, everyone knows what they’ve got to do.”

While the emphasis is on improving the players day in, day out in training, Jackson insists there’s just as much attention on developing the coaching staff too.

“I remember when I was in the Championship with Preston. There was Moyesy, his number two, the physio, the kitman and that was it,” he added.

“Now the staffs are bigger, the detail going into it is even more the higher up the levels you go. But it’s not about us, you’re trying to get a group of lads ready to play.

“There’s a development within the staff as well. They need to be able to develop and get better and the whole club is geared around that.”

Jackson added: “For me, when you work within this and you’ve got Vinny with his name and you do really well, people always ask ‘what do you do?’ Everyone wants to know what you do.

“But for me, the way we’ve gone about it, the experience for me is like going back to school.

“You watch a load of football over the years, you see the trends, but it’s no good watching it for just one day, you have to submerge yourself in it and the details involved.

“I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been a brilliant learning curve for me over the last year.

“They’re a good group of lads as well. They took me in from the outside when they didn’t have to. Vinny asked me to be involved and they’ve been brilliant. It’s been a pleasure to work with them.”

While each coach will have their own individual responsibility, Jackson is keen to stress the “collective” is the most important thing.

“When I spoke to Vinny about it he was clear in the role he wanted me to do. Everyone has their own role they concentrate on but then we all come together to look at the whole collective as well,” he said.

“It was very clear. There’s a real commitment to that learning process and that’s been one of the biggest things I’ve enjoyed about it, because it’s something you want to be a part of.”