Everton manager Ronald Koeman has brought plans for the new season forward by 72 hours.
Intead of reporting back for duty at the club’s Finch Farm training ground on Thursday, the bulk of the Blues squad were ordered to return three days sooner by the Dutchman.
Among the Everton players back in pre-season action were Muhamed Besic, Gerard Deulofeu, Leighton Baines and Gareth Barry, last season’s Player of the Year.
Koeman explained his motivation in the advanced preparations as looks to kick-start his Goodison Park reign in the best possible fashion.
He said: “I’m very much looking forward to getting down to work.
“I’m extremely full of energy after a long summer and the players have had a lot of holidays as well.
“That’s one of the reasons I decided to change the date for starting the pre-season because it was planned in for July 7 and we changed it to July 4 because I think the best pre-season is five or six weeks of planning.
“After a long holiday, the boys need to work and to get back fit to play football. With a new technical staff, we need to show them how we will work together.
“In pre-season, you get time to know all the players, to know the young players and, okay, you have the training sessions, but around the training sessions you have time enough to have a coffee with them and to have a talk to them.
“Of course, they need to know the manager, they need to know the rest of the technical staff and we need to know the players, the characters of the players and that’s important. You get that time more in pre-season.
“We will look at organising in the training sessions, we will have some good friendly matches and it’s all about preparing the team for the first Premier League game.”