Birmingham City are on the final day of their pre-season stay at Gibraltar Barracks, with assistant manager Pep Clotet revealing they've been put through their paces in the warm sunshine.

Clotet tweeted that the team were ending their stay with the Royal Engineers by doing a task that included building a raft and rowing to the other side of a lake.

The intention will be to build team spirit ahead of a crucial season for the Blues.

Clotet himself was pictured on one raft, but he and Garry Monk will be looking at doing far more than keeping the Blues afloat this season as they look to mount a serious promotion challenge.

Birmingham are on the final day of their stay with the Royal Engineers, who are trained in functional skills, demolitions, bridging, water supply, force protection and basic field engineering.

They're now being entrusted to do a bit of team building for the Blues too.

Clotet tweeted yesterday that the squad were undertaking a wide range of activities all aimed at building trust, resilience and team skills ahead of the Championship season.

The Verdict

Whether it is Spain, Tenerife or an army barracks in the middle of England, teams are out looking to build relationships and forge bonds ahead of a testing season.

There's fewer organisations that foster such wonderful spirit as the British Army, which is why even today clubs use them as part of their pre-season preparations. after all, England is only as warm as Spain and Portugal today anyway, so who needs to jet off abroad?

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