The Belgian defender, one of several youngsters training with the senior squad, knows the experience he and others will take from the Scottish training camp at St Andrews and Edinburgh, can only benefit each individual as well as Patrick Vieira’s Under-21 squad.
Bossaerts, who only turned 18 a week ago, said: “It’s great to be training with the first-team and you can learn a lot from them,” said Bossaerts. “It’s a good experience for me to play with them and be involved in a couple of matches as well.
“The intensity of the training is higher, the movement and pace is quicker and you have to think faster. Three sessions a day was quite tiring to begin with but that’s what pre-season is for and you soon adapt.
“I enjoyed the game against Dundee and being on the same pitch with some of the first-team players. I spoke to Micah Richards, Aleksandar Kolarov and Gael Clichy and they help me and advised me during the game and they advise me in training when they see anything they think I can do better.
“It’s great to have that kind of experience on tap and it can only help improve my game. Obviously there are a few EDS lads here in Scotland and we’re all getting so much from this trip.
“I have to admit, it’s not easy marking players like Jesus Navas at training because he’s so fast, but it’s good to pit yourself against top players like that.
“I hope I can train with the first team more in the coming months and also have a successful Uefa Youth League campaign as well because we feel we can definitely improve on last season.
“With several of us training and playing games at this standard in pre-season, it should benefit the EDS team as a whole.”
