Toumani Diagouraga believes United’s pre-season training camp in Ireland will be crucial for the squad to bond ahead of the new campaign.

Diagouraga and his team-mates landed in Dublin on Sunday evening for a two-week training camp which includes friendly fixtures against local sides Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers.

“I think it’s good for the team to bond together,” the midfielder said. “It will be good for us as a group to spend two weeks together. You need that togetherness if you want to achieve anything.

“We’re looking forward to every game because it gives us the chance to work on the stuff that hopefully we can put onto the pitch when the season starts.

“It’s been a hard few days of training so far but that’s part of pre-season.

“We’ve been doing quite a lot of running in a morning, and afternoons have been a bit more tactical – it’s still physical but there’s a lot more tactical stuff going into it in an afternoon.

“It’s work that we have to do. You might not like it but it’s work that we have to do if we want to achieve what we want to achieve during the season.

“It’s been good to see everyone back and the new manager is in place now - the new coaches know what they’re talking about.

“You can see there’s a lot of experience – they’ve all had good playing careers and they’ve done really well at Swansea. We can’t wait to get started.”

Diagouraga, who joined the club from Brentford back in January, is one of eight midfielders included in Garry Monk’s travelling squad for the trip to Ireland, and the 29-year-old insists he’s prepared for the battle for places which lies ahead.

“There has been competition everywhere I’ve been,” Diagouraga said. “You just have to put your head down, do what you do and hope that you’re in the team.

“There’s a very good chemistry in the squad. If we’re going to be successful, it’s not going to be just 11 players – it’s going to be about the full squad.

“Of course there’s competition in there but, ultimately, we want Leeds United to be successful.

 “It’s very exciting because we know what we are working for. Ultimately, we’re trying to be ready for the first game of the season at QPR and then we’ll carry on from there.

“We’ll go into the new season trying to win as many games as possible and seeing where that takes us.”

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