Re: Is the purpose of the American tour to gain American fans?
The purpose of the US tour is to give the players a nice holiday together before the more serious and more intense pre-season training starts back at Carrignton. It also gives the players a nice change from Carrignton, which is probably a very serious training environment, to have a bit of fun while training abroad. It's nice for them to get a few games in against teams who are in the middle of their season as it helps our deconditioned (compared to mid-season) players a chance to run off the beers and meals they ate in their 7* all-inclusive hotels in the off-season.
We also raise the profile of the club when we open football pitches for poor schools in deprived areas - is there anything better we could do apart from find cures for uncurable deseases?! And in our press conferences which seem to be everyday, we raise awareness of our club over there, which may increase shirt sales and try to get Americans to take a look at us during our Premier League, and Europa Lg FAC LC campaigns during the season.
In the training matches it doesn't matter whether we put a full team out or a youth team out, or whether we win 5-0 or lose 5-0. Because anyone with half a brain will understand that we are'nt even in the more serious and intense phase of pre-season training. Which is why players pull out of tackles and don't put the extra effort in to run after passes, and good because deconditioned (for them) muscles are easily injured if they are pushed too hard. Passes are misplaced and first touches can be poor because the sharpness of the brain isn't want it should be - notice how Sporting were much sharper than us the other day?did it surprise you to hear their season starts this week? Did you notice how NYRB were much sharper than us lastnight?does it surprise you that they are in the middle of their season?
