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After returning to England, Paul got back to work immediately, trying to secure a pre-season tour in Asia. He had a chat with Lineker, wanting to know his opinion.
GL Do you really think Asia is the best option for us?
PC Why not? It’s a big market and securing only 1 percent of the merchandise retailing over there would make the club rich, or should I say richer. Also they have a few decent teams. This could be a springboard into the Asian market.
GL Well, I was thinking that touring the states could be useful. You know, they’re a nation who has not fully developed their game and a promotion tour by the best team in the world couldn’t really hurt.
PC I’m glad you call us the best team in the world but I think that the Asian nations also are in developing stages. In 20 years or so they’re going to be up there competing with big nations. Playing wise, not much is different between the two nations though, so I don’t think we need to consider that. But as I said, Asia is a bigger market.
GL So, you’ve got any suggestions about which teams to meet?
PC No not really, my knowledge about the Asian teams is fairly limited. But I sent Adrian Heath to Asia a week ago; hopefully he can find suitable teams to meet.
GL And when’s he going to debrief? Suddenly Adrian walks into the office
PC Apparently now… So, Adrian, what’ve you got?
AH I’m fine. Thanks for asking… Lets see here… Adrian opens his attaché case, drags out a yellow paper
AH Well, we’ve got Japanese J-League 1 team, Kashima Antlers. Has a few decent players and could be a possibility. In addition we’ve got Yokohama F Marinos also a Japanese team. That’s about it.
PC That wasn’t a long list, was it?
AH Well, I guess not. But you’ve only got yourself to blame; most of the teams have already nailed their pre-season schedule.
PC Then I guess it’ll have to do…
GL Not necessarily.
PC What do you mean?
GL Why not do a two match tour in the US as well? The players need more than only two matches in pre-season and now I get what I want too.
PC Well, I guess you’re right. Then you’ll speak with the Japanese officials while I’ll go over to the states and sort things out there.
And so Campbell went to the states while Lineker took the flight to Japan.
12-24-2004, 12:02 PM
Abramovich did it. Then I will too. But I ' not as cheap as Abramovich. - The tale of a billionaire Post #142
Lineker had no problems whatsoever in securing matches against the two teams Adrian Heath had suggested on the meeting the other day. They were more than happy to be playing us. We would open the tour with a match against Kashima Antlers on Kashima Soccer, on the 22nd of July, before travelling to Yokohama and the match against Yokohama F Marinos 4 days later.
Campbell, however, had more obstacles to overcome. Many of the American teams had already finished their pre-season tour schedule and didn’t really want to play any more matches. This left Campbell a bit to think about and he tried very hard to secure at least two matches.
Finally Campbell managed two strike two deals, after some quite extensive negotiations. First out to face us was Washington DC United, which took a whole lot of convincing to turnover. The match is scheduled to take place on the 2nd of August. This would be a great time for Campbell to finally see 15-year-old prospect Freddy Adu, a player he had heard great things about.
Directly after it was off to the West Coast and the match against Los Angeles Galaxy on Home Depot Stadium in Carson 3 days later.
Five of Campbell’s players were not going to be joining the Japan tour, due to the “****ing” Copa América. They would instead be joining us in America.
Adriano, Ronaldo and Lúcio would be playing with Brazil while Andrés D’Alessandro and Walter Samuel joined the Argentinean squad.
12-24-2004, 03:06 PM
Abramovich did it. Then I will too. But I ' not as cheap as Abramovich. - The tale of a billionaire Post #143
After arriving to Kashima, Japan four days before the match against Antlers, Campbell and Lineker told the players that they were going to have one training session per day, in between the matches. The announcement was met by sighs and moans and was swiftly increased to two sessions per day. No one said a word this time.
Kashima Antlers vs. Leeds United – Kashima Soccer
Japan Tour Friendly – Thursday 22nd July 2004
Squad: Gianluigi Buffon; Carles Puyol, Ian Harte, Frazer Richardson, Dominic Matteo; Jermaine Pennant, Riccardo Montolivo, Nathan Doyle, Jermaine Jenas; Alan Smith, Francesco Totti (c)
The players had been told by Campbell that they should take it easy and gradually increase the pressure against Antlers. However they did not abide by his command and attacked right on kick off.
However they did not score that time. Nor did they score after that either. Instead Antlers surprisingly cruised to a win. Akira Ohshima scored two goals in the space of 60 seconds before Toru Takahashis ruined Gianluigi Buffon’s day completely after humiliating him in the 90th minute with a simple chip.
After the game Campbell wasn’t exactly happy. After all he had witnessed a terrible performance by his team and he had a few things to say
PC Ok, lads. Are you lot satisfied with the performance out there today? Cause I sure as hell am not. Paul was met by silence, before captain Totti answered silently
FT No, I guess not.
PC I’m sorry? I didn’t hear what you say.
FT I said no.
PC Let me tell you guys something… I don’t care if we loose against a better team than us, but against a Japanese team most of you haven’t ever heard of? Come on guys, its simply not acceptable. It’s a ****ing disgrace. Jermaine Pennant tried to interrupt
PC I’m talking now Jermaine… So as I was saying, I do not ever want to see another performance like the one against Antlers… Sure it was just a friendly. But what if you start thinking like that when we arrive back in England and play in the Premiership? Then that will not be enough. Cardiff City will even beat us if you lot continue this play.
GL*whispering* Don’t be so hard on the guys. As you said, it’s just a friendly.
PC Ok, let’s forget this now and concentrate on the match against Yokohama on Monday, ok? The players nodded
GL Ok lads… Hit the showers.
PC And Gary… Never ever question my authority in front of the players.
GL Yeah… Sorry boss.
01-28-2005, 10:37 PM
Abramovich did it. Then I will too. But I ' not as cheap as Abramovich. - The tale of a billionaire Post #148
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