The time may be right for Manchester United to part ways with their star player, according to the man. There is a time and a place for this. A game between the two biggest clubs from the biggest league in the world and a game being played in front of supporters who might be getting a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see their heroes play is a promoter's dream. Tuesday's preseason friendly in Thailand is a nightmare for the players. Preseason tours are bad for football players. The high-profile friendly and double training sessions in heat and humidity, with body and mind affected by jet lag, are bad enough, but events off the pitch are what really make the game's top players greet their summer globe-trotting with trepidation rather than excitement. A former United executive said the tours were relentless. The players don't like them because they can't escape from work mode. If there is a one-hour gap in the schedule, they will be meeting sponsors, signing shirts for fans or being asked to front a commercial for one of the club's partners. The team's new boss was urged to be wary of taking the job by his former boss, who described the club as a "commercial club". Ten Hag and his squad were greeted by hundreds of fans at the Don Mueang International Airport before they boarded their flight to Thailand. One United player spoke of the club taking the piss on a recent summer tour, with the squad "sliced and diced" to fulfill sponsor requirements before and after training. It's not just United. All of the leading clubs embark on lucrative trips to Asia or the United States, aiming to reach their long-distance supporters but also to grow their brand and repay those sponsors who spend millions to have their company logo attached to a famous football team. According to a source, the trip to Thailand and Singapore, where they will play Crystal Palace on Friday, is a "commercial tour" before the real work of preseason begins. The players and managers have no choice but to suck it up when their club sends them halfway around the world to play a friendly, when they could be getting ready for the new season. In order to help launch the club's new partnership with GM, United took an 8,000-mile, 16-hour flight from Cape Town to Shanghai to play a game against Shanghai Shenhua. GM wanted to grow their brand in China and they wanted to pay United to do it. The players' physical and mental strength was tested when they traveled so far for a single game. The trip didn't make sense because of the flight time, humidity and time difference. United flew to China to honor a commitment to Chevrolet. According to sources, senior executives from the company ripped up the partnership paperwork and offered to give the club £63 million a year to have their name on the team shirts. Aon, United's sponsors at the time, were paying only £20m a year, making the journey from South Africa pay off in spectacular fashion. The game was obscured by the champagne being drunk by the commercial team. Football takes second place in July every summer because clubs want their own Chevrolet moment. The players pay the price, but when they get a new contract from the club, they will know that the sponsors are what allow them to pay so much. The players like the more imaginative PR stunts. When Chevrolet's deal with United was launched in the U.S., they gave the keys to a convertible Chevrolet Camaro to Wayne Rooney and his teammate, and filmed them as they drove through Beverly Hills. One senior player recalled how draining the tour was and the pair were dispatched to sign footballs at a Los Angeles fire station. "It was training at 8.30 a.m., sent to rooms for a couple of hours rest, training after lunch, back for video meetings and tactics discussion," he said in an interview. Then back to the rooms and dinner and then bed. Commercial stuff is done every day for 14 days. We lost the first game of the season due to exhaustion. The club was ordered to block book rooms at a motel in the L.A. suburbs so the players wouldn't have to travel back and forth between training and games. On tour, they have had problems. A trip to Thailand, Malaysia and Australia in 2015, which was marred by a monsoon, was one of the highlights of the year. There was a moment of pure comedy when Rodgers crashed into the back of a stationary cart after being ferried away from the media centre in a golf cart. The club tried to minimize the effects of jet lag by spending the entire fortnight four hours ahead of U.K. time, regardless of their location. A source said that it didn't work. Half of the team picked up colds and bugs, and everyone was tired by the time we got back to the city. There are predictions that are not so wild.
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"Everyone was worn out by the time we got back"
The first ever Manchester derby outside of the country would be played at Beijing's Bird's nest Stadium, after United and City spent a week in China. The pitch and the grass were ruined by the rain. The game was called off, and both clubs returned to Manchester, as well as a group of United players who were stuck in China for hours after bad weather forced the plane to divert.
We had to make a quick landing. The weather is bad so we had to land somewhere else. We need to leave soon so that we can prepare for the game.
The crew discussed the impact that Christian Eriksen could have.
It's possible that it's an insight into the cosseted world of top football players that anything but the perfect preparation they enjoy in the premier league leads to frustration when on tour. All but the most famous stars can walk down Fifth Avenue in total anonymity, according to one source. In South Korea, large numbers of fans slept outside of The Shilla hotel in order to take a picture of their favorite player or have a shirt signed. During their visit to South Korea in 2007, the United's commercial team sealed a four-year partnership with a tire company.
In Australia, the security team had to ask the nightclub owner to allow the players to hide inside after David Moyes took the squad for a walk on the beach without realizing they would be mobbed by fans. A United source said that David had done it with another team. He took the players out even though he was warned it would be different. Within 10 minutes, it was chaotic.
The preseason tour with one of the game's biggest clubs will be a demanding trip on and off the pitch and Ten Hag will be warned to avoid similar attempts to break the monotony for his players in Thailand and Australia. He wants the squad to be ready for the season.
Less than half of the people on the jumbo jet were involved with the playing staff. What's the rest? After two years without the chance to cash in on the United brand, club executives and members of the commercial team will be charged with exploiting every spare minute to boost revenue streams and ensure that United's official financial services affinity partner in They have regular income from Thailand thanks to their partnership with Chaokoh.
Preseason tours are the same for every player at a top club. The clubs need to find a way to pay those big contracts. It is a price that the players have to pay.
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