EXWHUemployee: West Ham United lining up USA pre-season tour and potential Premier League mini-tournament
West Ham United are lining up a trip abroad this summer for pre-season, with the USA the most likely destination, according to EXWHUEmployee.
As revealed through his Patreon Account (28 January), David Moyes reportedly isn’t a fan of long trips abroad in pre-season but feels it could be beneficial in this case with a potential mini-tournament being talked about between several Premier League clubs.
Although America is the most likely destination, a trip to Australia, South Korea, China or Japan is not out of the equation for the Hammers.
As relayed by the West Ham Way, Ex said: “At the moment though the most likely destination seems to be the USA.
”There has been talks of six teams from the PL going over to play in two leagues of three teams and then into a knockout stage. These fixtures will be across multiple cities in the USA.
”David Moyes is said to be against long-distance tours but there is every chance he might not be the manager in the summer and even if he is the club really feel that it is in our long-term benefit to develop our overseas brand, especially in a country where the love of English football is really accelerated.”
Exciting opportunity
Usually, there is little goal-mouth action during the summer that peaks football fans’ interest, but the potential of a mini-knockout tournament between a number of Premier League teams certainly offers the contrary.
Taking part in such a competition would certainly offer a brilliant opportunity to bed in new signings and get used to playing Premier League quality opposition instead of meaningless friendlies against weaker opposition.
The only potential issue with such a trip would be that it could burn the players out before the season has even started. However, all in all, such a tournament would keep fans interested in the team’s progress over the pre-season.
Whether Moyes will still be the manager of West Ham United come the summer, who knows? But he will hope a strong run in the coming weeks can dampen any relegation potential. A run of fixtures against Newcastle, Chelsea and Tottenham, however, could leave the Hammers boss under severe pressure if he were to fail to pick up any points.