Baranowski is the club’s new strength and conditioning coach and he has arrived at the Westpac having worked with five different English Premier League clubs.

He spent four years with Leeds United where he worked with Kewell, Viduka and Burns and also helped Blackburn Rovers’ players have enough in the tank to claim the Premiership in 1995. He has now made New Zealand his home and is enjoying his new challenge.

He told The Dominion Post: “When I first started in the Premier League, football wasn’t used predominantly as the tool for improving fitness. It was just run, run, run but over the years I've been able to put together a programme that’s ball-specific.

“Instead of jogging around the park for 35 minutes at 75 per cent of maximum heart rate, I’m able to go on my laptop and pull out a football drill which would elicit the same intensity for the same duration.

“All Premier League clubs use them. Very few use athletic training now – it’s all using the ball, and all the information is downloaded live to a laptop as you do it.”

In his first week at the Phoenix, instead of hitting the hills, the players ‘enjoyed’ some lab testing. The training regime now includes heart rate monitors, hydration testing and daily urine samples.

Baranowski said: “Players are used to hearing that more is better but there’s often no measurement.

“Everything should be precise, specific, and individualised, then I can prepare programmes based on the results to ensure there is no over-training or peaking too early.”

He says what he found at the Phoenix was no different to any premier league club. “A mixture, the same anywhere I’ve been.

“You’ll get players who have a good level of fitness, some who are exceptional and some who are poor - you’ll always get that.”