After their final game of 2007 on Saturday evening The Amakhosi were handed their programme for the first month of 2008 - it is a programme that has them featuring in three friendly matches during the month.

As the Premier Soccer League is officially on a recess until after the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs from the 20th January to the 10th February 2008, it means that Chiefs who will next play an official league game on the 13th February will have had a seven week break between games.

Muhsin Ertugral will be treating the upcoming break like a pre – season and will use the opportunity to get his team prepared mentally and physically for the second round of league competition as well as the Nedbank Cup which could see Chiefs play in twenty games between February and May next year.

Fortnight break

The Chiefs first team squad have been given a break of two weeks and will resume training on the 5th January, which means that they will be back at work two days before the club's administrative staff return from their holidays.

The Amakhosi will head for an eleven-day camp, which will begin on the 9th January and will culminate on the 20th with Chiefs playing in a friendly match against yet to be confirmed opposition. The camp is scheduled to be held in the Western Cape in a location not to far from Cape Town, after the completion of the camp and the friendly game on the 20th January. Chiefs have penciled in two more friendly matches for January the dates selected for those matches are Wednesday 23rd January and Wednesday 30th January.

Welcome break

Ertugral believes that the break could not have been better timed as his team who have played nineteen games since the start of the season in August, have had a particularly taxing schedule in the final eight weeks of the year. From the end of October to their final match of 2007 on the 22nd December Chiefs played in eleven official league and cup games, Ertugral commenting on the break said.

“I do feel that this break will be good for us it will allow us to come back refreshed and energized, the guys were really tired as December wore on and it showed. We will treat this break like a pre-season and will do all the necessary physical preparation we would normally do in June and July, perhaps there could be a few new faces when we return in January”.

Balanced Preparation

Prior to parting ways with his charges on Saturday, Ertugral afforded them some advice and said “ I advised them to get as much rest as possible over the next two weeks, and that they should take care of themselves and not over indulge during the festive season. We need them to come back with out any extra weight as it will just set us back in our preparations”.

Furthermore Ertugral believes that the training regiment set out for the players during the nations cup break has been carefully planned, as he has consulted experts in drawing up the programme. He explains further, “given the fact that we are not in action for a long time we will be doing a lot of physically demanding training, so in consultation with a number of experts we have come up with a regime that allows for enough rest and recovery time between the sessions which are expected to be more grueling”.