Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
. The pre season trip to the USA was stupid idea for many more reasons than the ban on Tomlin and Madine. Excessive travel and poor quality opposition for starters. A lot of cost for very little benefit. .
Pre-season tours any further than western Europe just make no sense. I understand why the big clubs do it. But it's still a bad idea from a footballing point of view. You hear the stories of Dave Jones' trips to Portugal and it's just mind-blowing. Two weeks on the piss. I suppose it could be "team-building" but those sorts of situations can also cause bad blood. I'm fine playing Bath, Cheltenham etc. with the players able to sleep at home and go in for treatment the next day. That farce of USA tour was ridiculous. We played a team in San Antonio (about a 10-hour flight from the UK) that had high school players in the team. WTF was that all about?