Chelsea's new signing Marko Marin has taken little time to settle in at Stamford Bridge, with the diminutive playmaker admitting, a move to Chelsea was something he could not pass-up.
Marin said he was impressed by the technical abilities of his new team-mates and was blown away by the facilities at Chelsea's Cobham training ground. "The training is a good intensity, and I like the training here because we train most of the time with the ball. In Germany in pre-season we did more running without the ball.
"Sometimes we'd go out and run and you don't see the ball, but only in pre-season. We trained with the ball more during the season.
"It is also nice here to see how good the players are in the possession games with the ball. Everybody is a technically good player, and the training ground is something special. In Germany you don't have a training ground like this, so huge where you can see the many pitches for the younger players too."
German players are slowly making their presence felt in the English Premier League and Marin, who has made 16 appearances for the German national side, admitted he keeps in constant touch with compatriots and Arsenal duo Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski.
"It is my decision to go to another country because I am not afraid of this, I like this, I want to play for Chelsea," the 23-year-old told the club's official website.
"It is not that I want to go abroad from Germany, it is that Chelsea is a good club. They are European champions, so I am happy to play here.
"Of course I know Lukas Podolski, we have played together in the national team, but I played two years together with Per Mertesacker at Werder Bremen before he moved to Arsenal and I am in contact with him more than with Lukas."
Marin's move from Werder Bremen was announced by the Blues in April for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £7 million ($11 million). Chelsea veteran Branislav Ivanovic said last week he would do his best to help Marin settle in as quickly as possible; and the 23-year-old, who has a Serbian background, admitted he spoke to Ivanovic soon after completing the move.
"Everybody knows that I was born in the ex-Yugoslavia so before and after the game I talked to the Serbian guys, and now when I knew that I was coming to Chelsea I phoned him and we talked a lot and now he is helping me a lot, mostly little things but it is good to have somebody here who talks in my language.
"It is really good to go together to dinner and we are lucky for restaurants here in London, but we didn't go for Serbian food yet."
With Chelsea heading to a pre-season trip to the United States for two weeks, Marin will have more chances to get to know the rest of the squad. "We were in Austria or Germany for our training camps with Werder," he recalls. "Or one time in Spain or Turkey, never the U.S.
"I've gone there for holidays but not with a team. The first reason why we go there now is to train for friendly games and we have not the time to do other things. The main thing is that we get fit."
Meanwhile, Chelsea announced the shirt numbers to be worn by their three summer signings. Marin will wear the No 21, vacated by Salomon Kalou. Eden Hazard will put on the No 17 shirt with Kevin de Bruyne playing with the No 14 shirt on his back.
