PALACE boss Dougie Freedman is looking forward to his first pre-season campaign as a manager.

The Scotsman will base his squad in Exeter as the Eagles prepare for the big kick-off against Peterborough on August 6 and admits he chose for Devon location for a good reason.

Freedman explained: “I wanted a lot of local competition.

“We do enough travelling throughout the year with different venues up north, so I picked my pre-season down at Exeter.

“It’s fairly local being only three hours away, there’s no airports, no different languages, no different foods, the lads will be comfortable with it and we’ll go there and train hard.”

The Eagles will then return to kick off the pre-season fixtures which Freedman has planned out painstakingly to give his side the best possible preparation for new campaign.

He said: “On the way back we play Basingstoke where I think most of the fans can maybe get to.

“It’s a decent travelling distance, so they can get to our first game which can break us into the games.

“Then we’ve got local teams.

“We’ve got Wycombe coming up next where again it is local and a step up in terms of giving the lads a run out in a more realistic way and we keep on going from there.

“You’ve got to put in preparation in terms of travelling, the right competition.

“We pull it up with a League One opposition then back down with League Two opponents in Crawley, so everyone gets games.

“Then we play Premiership opposition against Norwich and then back down to a League One team in Bournemouth.”

The manager is also keen to take advantage of the freedom pre-season provides to change his side’s style of play.

It has been a case of substance over style for much of Freedman’s short reign as Palace had to grind out results to retain their Championship status, but that is not the way he would like to play in an ideal world.

He explained: “I’m looking forward to getting a good pre-season under my belt with the lads and maybe changing slightly the way we play.

“We can start afresh because we aren’t scrapping for our lives, so we can maybe express ourselves a little more.

“We will be working hard on the training ground on that and getting the boys mentally and physically prepared for what is hopefully going to be a good season for us.”

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