Fitness guru the special one for Albion

Ade Mafe has put Albion through their paces in Slovenia determined to do things by the book – Jose Mourinho's book.

The former Great Britain sprinter, newly appointed as Baggies fitness coach, admits his eyes were opened during a first decade in football spent helping Chelsea climb to the summit of the English game.

But there was one man at Stamford Bridge who left a lasting impression on the 42-year-old, a key figure in new head coach Roberto Di Matteo's backroom team.

Mafe: "All of them opened my eyes, from Ruud Gullit at the beginning to Mr Mourinho at the end.

"But Mourinho did it more than most, just through the training regime. It was totally different and so was his attitude towards training, fitness and football."

'The Special One's' theories were committed to paper. It was a dossier most at Stamford Bridge were desperate to get hold of.

Mafe now reckons those who learned at the feet of the Portuguese boss, including Albion assistant boss Eddie Newton, will use the experience to make their own way in coaching.

The fitness coach said: "Mourinho's philosophy on football was different to everybody else. I think you will see the coaches who were there at Chelsea and have now moved on prove to be successful.

"There is Brendan Rodgers (Reading), Steve Clarke (West Ham) and Eddie Newton here.

"He had a big thick book about his philosophy on football which everybody got hold of, read, took on and developed as they saw fit."

Mafe is now determined to apply the lessons learned in West London to his new challenge at the Hawthorns.

But, after spending more than a decade in athletics, Mafe - who still holds a share of the world record in the 4x200m relay - admits the transition into football came as something of a shock.

He said: "Footballers have a completely different mentality, and I think the key word is 'game.'

"Football started as a game to these guys and anything on top of that isn't viewed with the same attitude as the game is.

"It's improving, but in the past if you were talking about nutrition, weight training, looking after yourself and all the supplementary things to help you play football, they were not as well looked into or adhered to as they could have been.

"You tend to find in a lot of other sports it's thought about much more. Things are slowly changing. The foreign players coming in and their attitude towards things.

"A lot of players now are starting to look after themselves, every club has a sports scientist and every club has a strength and conditioning coach.

"They're looking at all the other elements around it to help increase performance.

"At the end of the day if the players don't have the talent and can't play football, you can have the strongest, fittest person in the world – but it won't work."

Mafe today resumed a gruelling training programme with his new charges after they touched down in Slovenia, following 10 days at the Baggies' training base in Great Barr.

He reckons there will be no let-up despite the change of scenery.

The former sprinter said: "For us it's about training. This is something that was organised before we came here and we're fulfiling the obligation.

"For us it's still about running in the morning and playing in the afternoon or training morning and afternoon.

"There are two games to get the guys going and have a bit of match fitness, but for us it's when the season starts that things get moving.

"With all pre-season games you shouldn't read too much into it.

"At Milton Keynes Dons last year we lost all of our pre-season games, yet we got off to a great start when the league began.

"The guys will be tired and working really hard. In the week they will be training in the morning and playing in the evening, so their legs will be tired when they start the game.

"It's about giving everyone a chance to get a bit of match fitness under their belt.

"Whether we had Slovenia organised or not, we would have gone to Portugal or somewhere else and had a pre-season training trip.

"It's a great chance for the new players to get to know the guys who are here, it's good for bonding before the season starts.

"It also breaks the monotony of coming to the training ground every day."