Cardiff City's pre-season got under way on Wednesday as all of Steve Morison's players reported for duty at their Vale of Glamorgan training base.
The Bluebirds underwent fitness tests in the baking hot sunshine out on the club's freshly-trimmed pitches, getting to work ahead of what promises to be another gruelling Championship campaign. As an aside, you can view all of Cardiff City's 2022/23 Championship fixtures here .
So, just what did we notice about Cardiff's return to the Vale? We took a closer look...
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New training kit
Well, the first notable change was the different training kit the players and coaching staff were seen wearing on Wednesday.
After so many years of Cardiff wearing adidas kits, it was a little jarring to the eye to see them donning the New Balance gear at first.
In-keeping with the club's training-kit colours, of course, the strip is a dark blue. It's quite minimalist, shall we say, it appears to be just a block navy colour all over apart from the odd New Balance logo and Cardiff City crest.
Simple, but effective? We'll let you be the judge.
All new signings in attendance
It appears all new signings have reported a clean bill of health and all eight recruits were spotted on Wednesday.
Jak Alnwick, Ollie Tanner, Ebou Adams, Vontae Daley-Campbell, Jamilu Collins, Callum O'Dowda, Ryan Allsop and Mahlon Romeo were all honed in on by the club's camera operator at the Vale. Romeo gave a big old grin to the camera while Adams was spotted in hysterics on the floor at one stage.
It will have been the first time the players will have met their new team-mates and it appears as though they ingratiated themselves extremely well, probably showcasing a real Blitz spirit during what is always a difficult first day of pre-season.
Youngster wins the bleep test
The ultimate grueller for many is the bleep test, the dreaded endurance test they all face on the first day back.
For the uninitiated, the test entails players running back and forth between cones, trying to beat the 'bleep', while the gaps between the bleeps gets shorter and shorter each time, thus meaning players have to run quicker.
It starts off as a relatively gentle jog before the pace ramps up rapidly towards the end. While there were a few valiant efforts, though, one young kid stood out.
Eli King, the 19-year-old midfielder who broke into the squad properly in the second half of the campaign, was the victor in the bleep test. The test goes up to level 21 and King, in fact, beat the test. Quite the feat from the youngster, who collapsed to the floor in a crumpled heap when the ordeal was over.
"I've seen him do it the last couple of years," said Oliver Denham of King after the test. "It wasn't a surprise to me that he went that far!"
U23s prospect spotted
Typically in pre-season, especially when there is a player deficit from the end of last year, some young players are called up to train with the first team.
One such player spotted was Jack Leahy, a youngster who will want to kick on and potentially press his case for a shot at the first team or even a loan move away this season. Leahy was a consistent performer for Darren Purse at the end of last season and earned recognition for his displays.
Leahy, a winger signed from Brighton a year ago, scored three goals last term for the under-23s, including a cracker against Barnsley for which WalesOnline was in attendance. It'll be interesting to see how he goes in pre-season and whether he does indeed end up on loan somewhere.
Another young player of interest was Xavier Benjamin, the 18-year-old centre-back who was signed from Fulham this week. He was spotted during some of the videos of testing, too.
New coaches get to work
There was also the small matter of two new members of Steve Morison's coaching staff starting their jobs in earnest on Wednesday.
New goalkeeping coach Graham Stack was front and centre, getting stuck in and seemingly having a laugh with his players, while Patrick Wilson, the club's new head of physical performance, was orchestrating much of the fitness on the first day, as you would expect.
Stack took the goalkeepers for some light drills, too, with all four stoppers, Dillon Phillips, Jak Alnwick, Ryan Allsop and Rohan Luthra all in attendance. There was no George Ratcliffe, who has seemingly not yet signed the contract which has been put to him.
Whether four goalkeepers is too much will be decided in the coming weeks, one suspects.
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