Now that the Euros have ended, most clubs have started their Pre-season Tours. We finally see our teams play, albeit in friendly matches with a diminished squad. Most fans are counting down the days until the summer is over and the season restarts, but until then, we have pre-season to whet our appetites.
That; and checking our Twitter feeds to see whether or not the club has signed a new player.
So what exactly does pre-season entail?
For most clubs, pre-season involves participating in friendly football matches with other clubs to allow players to compete in a non-pressurized environment.
Most Clubs use this opportunity to travel with their squads to different parts of the world. This boosts the players’ morale by giving them a chance to see the world. It also gives fans residing in the visiting city an opportunity to attend matches. From a player’s perspective, the summer signings can interact with the rest of the squad in a different, neutral setting.
These pre-season tours are a test drive for the club. It is a time to build player confidence, improve playing style, and a time to strengthen bonds with others. The stronger the bonds, the more trust among players and that reflects on the pitch.
Coaches also tend to tweak their team’s style and iron out any kinks because this is a no-pressure environment. Sometimes they will rotate player positions, experiment with different types of play, and overall try to identify and address weak spots.
A Chance to Shine
Coaches will try different combinations of players, adding several youth players from the academy teams into the mix. This allows the youth academy players to test themselves in a controlled yet competitive setting against strong opposition. It is a chance for the youth to shine, or maybe to break into the first team; something most youth players strive for. Lionel Messi and Bukayo Saka are examples of youth players who crossed that divide from the Barcelona and Arsenal Youth academies respectively, and broke out into the first-team and became Superstars for their clubs.
So Pre-season is a friendly environment for clubs and players to grow over the summer. The opportunity to improve their skills and to elevate themselves to a higher level.
Match Result
The results of these friendly matches shouldn’t matter much, because it’s a pre-season. However, all teams approach these matches with a will to win, because that’s what good teams do. They wouldn’t or rather shouldn’t lose sleep over a loss in a friendly. If you’ve been keeping tabs lately, Manchester City lost a couple of pre-season friendlies in a row. And yet, their youth team did grab a win against Chelsea. What matters to Pep Guardiola is that they’re Premier League Champions, UEFA Super Cup Champions, and FIFA Club World Cup Champions in the 2023-24 season. In the end, those competitive results matter more.
All in all, pre-season means the 2024-25 Premier League season is on the horizon. For those starved of watching their favourite teams, it’s a chance to see them again, even if it means waking up at an ungodly hour, due to time differences.
Summer seems too long without watching your favourites dash across the pitch looking to find the back of the net, and I for one, sure am glad that football is almost back.
