Arsène Wenger regrets demands of Arsenal’s pre-season friendlies

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/25/arsene-wenger-arsenal-pre-season-friendlies

Version 0 of 1.

Arsène Wenger has criticised the demands of Arsenal’s pre-season tour, saying it will be “impossible” to prepare his squad properly for the upcoming Premier League campaign, which begins on 16 August.

Wenger, whose squad is in the US for a friendly against the Major league Soccer franchise New York Red Bulls before heading to Austria for a training camp and then returning to London for the Emirates Cup, is concerned at the demands of the club’s pre-season schedule, especially given that some players are returning later than normal after World Cup duty.

He has already announced that his three German World Cup players – Mesut Özil, Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski – will almost certainly miss the Premier League opener against Crystal Palace so that they can have an extended rest period following their exertions in Brazil.

“These training camps in the modern game are decided for commercial reasons and because of the extent of popularity of the club,” said Wenger on Thursday. “We’ve never been to the States before and I was very happy to come to New York, a city I love. But for purely football reasons, the best thing to do is stay and not travel too much – because of the time you waste and the jet-lag you suffer.”

He added: “This season is a post-World Cup year and very difficult because the time is very short between the final, which was on 13 July, and the start of the new season on 16 August. Fifa say you are obliged to give four weeks’ holiday to the players, so I don’t know how all that works together. It looks, to me, impossible.”

Wenger’s comments echo similar complaints made recently by the Manchester United manager, Louis van Gaal, who has said his team’s pre-season tours are wrongly being dictated by the club’s commercial interests. United are also in the US: they beat LA Galaxy 7-0 on Wednesday, and now face games in Denver, Washington and Detroit.