Southampton: Saints confirm pre-season tour of China

Southampton have finally announced their plans to train in China for two weeks during pre-season, with the side flying out at the tail end of July.

The plan was perhaps the worst-kept secret on the south coast, with many having speculated that the club would be heading east this summer for the best part of the last three weeks.

The move has obviously been instigated by the new owner Mr Gao, who will see the decision to send the side to his native country and one which’ll boost the Saints’ presence in Asia.

Southampton will hope to have added a few fresh faces before the tour, with this last fortnight since the season’s conclusion having been filled with doubt over whether Mark Hughes will or will not agree to a new deal with the Saints.

As part of the tour, the south coast outfit will face Germany’s Schalke on the 5th July, with the game taking place in Kushan, where the Saints will be based for the first week or so. It remains unclear at this point whether the club will be offering a stream of the game.

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Following that the Saints will be travelling to Xuzhou for the second part of what has been described as a ‘period of intense preparation’ ahead of their next Premier League season – when based in the north west they will face off against Jiangsu Suning on the 11th July.

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The Super League side are currently managed by former England boss Fabio Capello, and among their ranks are a couple of familiar faces – former Chelsea midfielder Ramires and fellow Brazilian Alex Texeira who was once coveted by Liverpool.

Following the game – which has the same 7:30 PM local-time kick-off as the other fixture, the Saints will return to England on the 13th of the month.

Although fixtures will be announced in due course, it would make sense for the side to have three more friendlies before the 2018/19 kicks off, with two of those at St. Mary’s and another likely to be away from the south coast.

The move to train in China will naturally do well for the side’s marketing over in the far east but supporters will hope it will also do great things for team-bonding. The morale around the club was at perhaps the lowest it’s been in recent memory before Hughes took over, meaning the Welshman needs to focus on getting this group of players unified before the new campaign.