BLACKBURN Rovers' summer signings Javier De Pedro, Paul Dickov and Dominic Matteo met up with their new team-mates for the first time yesterday - but grins were soon replaced by grimaces on the opening day of pre-season training.

It's the one date in the year that all professional footballers dread after a summer of inactivity.

And for the next week or so, Rovers' tranquil Brockhall training base will look more like a boot camp as Graeme Souness puts his squad through a gruelling fitness regime ahead of their trip to Germany.

"The first week or so of pre-season training isn't particularly enjoyable for the players," said Souness, with a slightly mischievous glint in his eye.

"Unfortunately, there's no magic formula. The only way you're going to get fit is through hard work so it's a case of plodding around the training ground and doing some running to get the muscles going again.

"It's only towards the end of the second week when we start to play games that it really starts to excite me."

Souness knows all about the pain of pre-season training from his days as a player but he admits that modern professionals return in better shape than he and his contemporaries ever used to.

"The game has changed since I was a player," added Souness. "These days, everyone tends to come back in good nick.

"The vast majority will have been doing two or three days a week on their own through the closed season so I don't expect too many problems in that department."

Virtually the entire senior squad returned for training yesterday.

Even Brad Friedel, who had originally been granted a couple of extra days off due to international commitments, came back early and took part in the sessions.