Tommy Mooney / Tommy Mooney / 11 September 2008 / Leave a comment

Our man in Marbella tells us about training on mountains, his team mates fascination with his past and how an early night caused him to miss England's victory over Croatia.

I've been out here for a couple of months now but I haven't fully acclimatised to all of the Spanish ways just yet - so I'm not quite at the stage of taking a siesta every day!

But with the training we get through, I must admit that once I've had lunch, I've been known to grab a quick 40 winks by the pool or on the beach. I would happily have a nap every day but the kids haven't started school yet so I have to perform my fatherly duties of taking them here and there in the afternoons.

Training out here is less intensive but is drawn out over a longer period of time. We train near the top of a mountain (it's probably a big hill but it feels like a mountain!) where you can certainly notice the extra few degrees of heat. Even starting at 9.30am, we're often running in the midday heat.

Joking aside, a couple of hours in the heat is very draining, so building a little siesta into my routine is probably a good idea. Even the Spanish boys in the squad have found the training a real test, they've been telling me. In fact, I've been communicating better and better as the days go by and have built a good rapport with a couple of the older lads - but the younger ones are opening up conversation with me quite a bit and the subject's normally my playing career in England.

Have you played against this player or that player? I can tell I've been Googled by a few of the boys because they've been coming in with pictures of me playing; the most recent one was of me in Wycombe kit after a cup tie against Chelsea, shaking hands with Jose Mourinho.

I never fetch up my past career but I'm happy to answer questions from the boys and they've had quite a few. The biggest point of amazement is the crowds in England - at a similar level of the game. The Segunda B here is the equivalent of League One yet while here the divisional average would be around 1,500 to 2,000, most sides get six to eight thousand in League One with the likes of Leeds bumping the average up a bit

Have you played at Wembley or the Millennium Stadium they've been asking? Yes is the answer to both of those, luckily for me. And when I go on to say the crowds were 70,000, they can't believe it wasn't a game between massive Premiership sides.

It's a bit of a trip down memory lane for me some days, which is nice really. I think my past career has bought me a little bit of respect from the local players here. I'm old enough to be their dad, some of them, so they should be respecting their elders anyway!

We drew 1-1 at home on Sunday, but the day before that I was watching Spain beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 1-0 on one of the main television channels. I have to admit that without Sky Sports or Setanta, I'm not catching much in the way of English football at all. Some of my Sunday morning is spent scouring the English papers' sports pages for scores, scorers and line-ups from my old clubs and for players I still keep in touch with.

Spanish TV doesn't show anything other than the Premier League. If I'm at home on a Saturday evening I watch Match of the Day, but if I'm away travelling to a game I don't get to see it much. I've got some Sky channels at home, but not the sports stuff just yet.

With our hectic start to the season, I haven't even had a chance to nip down the road to the local bar to watch either of the first two England qualifiers. It's great news they've won both, although the last thing I feel like doing after training is staying up late to watch the football. How was I to know what the Croatia game was going to be like!

My one big connection with the England side is that Fabio Capello is a member of the golf club just down the way from me. This is the one I play at with my neighbour who's also a member. I haven't got sorted out yet, perhaps I should get hold of old Fabio and see what he's doing with his membership - after all, he's probably a bit busy to make use of it.

For my tip this weekend, I'm getting behind another of my former English sides: Birmingham City. And in particular my old Watford team-mate Kevin Phillips, who can't help but keep banging the goals in. He was over here last weekend, in the bar just down the road, the owner was telling me. So expect to see a tanned Phillips celebrating a goal at the Tilton End.

Blues have got Doncaster at home on Saturday and, while Donny have started well, I don't see them being a match for City at St. Andrew's. Back Blues at about [1.6] on Saturday and then make sure you also do Kev for the first goal. I expect he'll be priced at something like [6.0].