Gone, mostly, are the days of clubs heading abroad on a training camp which includes a big night out that results in players not returning until the early hours of the following morning.

The modern-day player and football club has moved on from those trips that can be shrouded in controversy where curfews are broken and there are elements of low-key espionage, namely sneaking out or back into the hotel.

When Heart of Midlothian fly out to Tenerife on Thursday afternoon they will do so with the intention of instilling key details ahead of the campaign and training with intensity. There is downtime scheduled for the players to spend time with each other away from the training pitch to allow them to unwind. It is factored around double sessions in temperatures that are forecast to be in the mid-to-high 20 degrees.

"Thursday will be a rest day, Friday will be a double session, Saturday will be a double session, Sunday will be a long single session," Naismith said of the plans. "The players will have Sunday afternoon off and then next week follows the same pattern.

"It's effectively five sessions squeezed into a really intense time, they will have a rest, and then there's a big block again.

"The two sessions per day, the boys will work hard. However, they can be on the pitch and not work hard as long as we are getting detail in what we want to do in areas of the pitch."

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Originally, there were plans for a friendly match toward the end of the camp but with opposition not as easy to come by the focus will be on the training pitch.

Hearts have already organised four friendly matches this summer, the first took place behind closed doors on Wednesday, a 2-2 draw with Partick Thistle, with matches against Leyton Orient, Tottenham Hotspur and Fleetwood Town later this month. The aim is to play between five and seven before the start of the campaign.

With so many new players in the door already, Naismith sees the work on the training ground early on as vital for the new season.

"I've got some personal experience of being out there for training," he said. "It's got some benefits and some drawbacks. You find it harder to get a [friendly] game. We've managed to structure pre-season with getting so many bodies in earlier so that we can focus on the training and detail of what we want when we are away - without having that issue of trying to fit the game in and how much work you do before it.

"The conditions and the training complex we are going to are really good. The players will work really hard but there will be rest time for them as well. There is enough there to entertain the players and make them relax, rather than being stuck in a hotel room on your downtime and waiting until the next session. They can go out and enjoy a meal or whatever close by."

Blair Spittal, who scored in the friendly v Thistle, will be one of the summer signings in Tenerife.Blair Spittal, who scored in the friendly v Thistle, will be one of the summer signings in Tenerife. (Image: SNS)

As Naismith told Hearts Standard recently, players will be tested on their team-mates to bring each other closer. The downtime will be important for that, whether it is golfing or meals out.

"There will be an afternoon where they can do something like that," he noted. "It's all factored in at the right times. Through my career, you got given an inch and tried to take a mile but I think that's gone now. There is an understanding and a clear message.

"Gone are the days where you go on a training camp, you have really hard runs, but you've got a night out and a game. That's gone.

"We have a decent enough group. There is respect and trust. If we go out for a meal and somebody wants a glass of something with their dinner, they can have it. But they aren't going on the p*** and then the next day is wasted. That's not going to happen."

He added: "Being together is important. That was probably the biggest positive of last year's pre-season camp. It really got the new players comfortable around the group and we benefitted from that during the season for sure."

Thursday will be the first of several flights the Hearts squad will take over the next six months. Some destinations could require the team to play in the heat. In a way, the camp in Tenerife can mimic aspects of what they could encounter.

"That's a part of it," Naismith said. "There's only so much you can do because you don't know where you will go in a European game. The structure is different but it definitely gets players used to travelling, then feeling a bit leggy the next day.

"How are you going to make sure that, come match time, you've got rid of all that tiredness and you are ready to go? That's the details we can work on. With the heat, it will be roasting, probably hotter than most of have been through in a pre-season, which is a good thing for us."