City Raise The Bar In Austria Under Cifuentes

Leicester City have wasted no time getting down to business after touching down in Austria, as new Manager Martí Cifuentes begins shaping his vision for the Foxes ahead of the 25/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

2025-07-17T18:00+01:00

by Sam Stevens

Published

17 Jul, 2025

City Raise The Bar In Austria Under Cifuentes

Leicester City have wasted no time getting down to business after touching down in Austria, as new Manager Martí Cifuentes begins shaping his vision for the Foxes ahead of the 25/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-17T18:00+01:00

City Raise The Bar In Austria Under Cifuentes

Leicester City have wasted no time getting down to business after touching down in Austria, as new Manager Martí Cifuentes begins shaping his vision for the Foxes ahead of the 25/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-17T18:00+01:00

City Raise The Bar In Austria Under Cifuentes

Leicester City have wasted no time getting down to business after touching down in Austria, as new Manager Martí Cifuentes begins shaping his vision for the Foxes ahead of the 25/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-17T18:00+01:00

City Raise The Bar In Austria Under Cifuentes

Leicester City have wasted no time getting down to business after touching down in Austria, as new Manager Martí Cifuentes begins shaping his vision for the Foxes ahead of the 25/26 Sky Bet Championship season.

Sam Stevens

2025-07-17T18:00+01:00

We landed in Graz on Wednesday and were swiftly into a double training session the following day, marking the start of a focused pre-season camp nestled in the heart of central Europe. With a demanding campaign on the horizon, every session here counts as Cifuentes gets down to work.

After an initial introduction to his new squad back in the UK, Cifuentes is embedding the philosophy that has defined his coaching career – an approach he revealed is inspired in part by growing up in Barcelona during Johan Cruyff’s era at Camp Nou. “My purpose is always to be the dominant team,” he explained earlier this week.

The work begins for James Justin and his Foxes colleagues in Austria.

“I want a team that has an attacking way of understanding the game,” he added. “Despite scoring the one, we always chase the second goal and the third one. It will be about being very competitive.”

Much of the early fitness groundwork was laid during the first fortnight of pre-season, so the emphasis is likely to shift towards sharpening tactics and style of play as the new Manager gets his ideas across. On Thursday, with that in mind, the players were put to work under Cifuentes’ watchful eye, before recovering with ice baths and refuelling during a mid-day break. While some locked horns at Mario Kart or relaxed together in the communal areas, others retreated to their rooms, with more hard work still on the horizon before the day's end.

A lighter moment during an otherwise intense session for Ricardo Pereira.

It wasn’t long before they were back out on the pitches for an afternoon session, fine-tuning our approach ahead of Saturday’s friendly clash with Hungarian side Zalaegerszegi TE FC. The 5:30pm BST kick-off at ZTE Arena will be broadcast live and free on YouTube and Foxes Hub – another chance for the Blue Army to check in on the progress of their side ahead of the new second-tier campaign.

There’s plenty more to come from Austria too. Hamza Choudhury and James Justin will share their thoughts on the intense early days of camp, with plenty of behind-the-scenes access giving fans a closer look at the graft and ambition driving Leicester City’s preparations for the challenges ahead.

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