Chris Wilder declared himself more than happy with his new squad’s apparent fitness levels on their first day back yesterday.

“They’ve come back in decent shape,” said the Oxford United manager.

A 3,000m run around the Iffley Road track today and a series of bleep tests will follow to gauge more exactly their fitness, but no-one appeared to have over-indulged over the summer.

“You use your own eyes to see what they’re like, but they all looked good, and I’m not surprised. With all the expectancy and how much the players are looking forward to the new season, I fully expected them to come back fit.

“We’ve still got to do the hard yards and running work, but pre-season’s changed a lot from when Mickey Lewis or I were playing. Then it was often about Army camps and cross-country runs.

“We’re getting them into it more gradually with a couple of days this week and next week before it all starts.”

It will probably be several more days before the Oxford United players, who were were seeing first-hand the practice pitches and clubhouse of their new training ground base at Chesterton, get to kick a ball.

And although it is still only June, some have already been itching to return for a while.

“Players have been looking forward to coming back,” said Wilder, who believes the new training base at Bicester & North Oxford Cricket Club – a level up from what they had at Milton United last season – will also help to make next season a successful one.

“The facility is first-class,” he said. “I’m delighted with the association we’ve got with the people here.”

Nearly all of the new summer signings – Ryan Clarke, Mark Creighton, Dannie Bulman, Alex Rhodes, Marcus Kelly, Jack Midson and Matt Green – were present, and they were given an introduction to the club by the manager, with chairmen past and present Nick Merry and Kelvin Thomas in attendance.

Said midfielder Bulman: “The manager told us what he expects from us, the ground rules and so on, and just said we should enjoy it and have a smile on our face.”

The former Crawley Town skipper added: “Everyone’s eager for the new season to come around.

“It gets to the stage in the summer where the missus is doing your head in, or the kids at home are, and you miss the lads’ banter. So it’s a nice change to come back and act like kids yourselves!”

Wilder said: “All the new players are real good characters.

“But we always do our homework on them by speaking to managers at clubs they’ve been associated with.”