Just a thread to discuss our pre-season games and related nonsense. The squad is currently out in Singapore for two International Champions Cup fixtures. They will then travel to Germany for two Audi Cup games. First up are Juventus at 12.30pm (7.30pm local time) at the Singapore National Stadium on Sunday. It's swiftly followed by Man Utd at 12.30pm on Thursday, which takes place at the Hongkou Stadium. Munich will host two matches for us, the first of which will be against Real Madrid. That's on Tuesday 30th July at 5pm and it's followed the next day by another match. This will be either Bayern or Fenerbahce, depending on the result of the two games. Our final International Champions Cup match sees us host Inter at 3pm on August 4th. I'll update and add match details for the individual fixtures, as we approach them.
Eriksen likely to not feature against Juve but has a chance of playing against Utd. Just like Ben Davies, he had minor surgery at the end of the season after playing with an injury. Seems to be ahead of Ben in rehabilitation though seeing as Ben is still in England. This will be an interesting pre-season, majority of the squad are fit and they've had a sufficient rest, hopefully does us well going into the new season. First chance to see Tanguy in action, too!
Should also be the first chance to see Troy Parrott in first team action, could potentially be a breakthrough season for him.
One thing struck me about the squad we took to Singapore: TJ Eyoma wasn't in it, with Japhet Tanganga taking what was expected to be his place On the one hand I certainly don't begrudge Tanganga getting his chance, as those who follow the Academy sides regularly say that Tanganga has a higher ceiling than Eyoma and his style of play that's one part Ledders and one part Sissoko could make him an asset to the team if he breaks through, but on the other it does seem strange that we were fully behind Eyoma last season yet now we're leaving him behind to face Dulwich Hamlet at the weekend The part that looks off about it is that Tanganga was in the last year of his contract last season and didn't look like he would sign a new deal right up until the Retain/Release list came in, and as soon as he did he's training with the first team and taking part in pre-season - and he's not the only player on the flight to Singapore that can be said about, as the exact same thing can be said of Jack Roles
I’m one of those who’ve said in the past that I think Tanganga is a better prospect than Eyoma. He’s a real physical presence and I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing him feature. You more so than I have banged the Jack Roles drum so he’s another I’m hoping to see given some game time. His record at youth for a midfielder is a joke, does make you wonder why he hasn’t already had a cameo here or there, regardless of his injury problems.
The Juventus and Inter games are on Premier Sports, whatever that is. The Man Utd game is on Man Utd TV. The Audi Cup games might be on ITV 4, as a few places have it down as that, but I can't seem to confirm it.
Should be able to get a stream for Premier Sports I reckon. Pretty sure I've done so before. Utd TV may be tougher, mind you having said that, Man Utd games are usually the easiest to find streams for so someone's bound to fix one up. Good news about the Audi Cup ones if true.
