Victories over Melbourne City, Adelaide United, Roma and Vietnam mark successful tour
City finished their tour of Australia and Vietnam in style as they romped to an 8-1 victory over a Vietnam 11 on Monday night.
Victories over Melbourne City, Adelaide United, Roma and Vietnam, plus the defeat to Real Madrid, marked the end of a successful tour.
The players took their time whilst out there to bring some joy to the local Vietnamese communities, with plenty of player signature signings.
But obviously their main goal was to step up their training in a bid to improve match fitness, and perform as well as they could in the game against Vietnam – and they certainly did that.
Raheem Sterling (x2), Aleks Kolarov (x2), David Silva (x2), Marcos Lopes and Jose Angel Pozo were the scorers for City, with Nguy?n Van Quy?t scoring a late consolation for Vietnam – but it was a goal that got the crowd loud and proud, and on their feet.
City headed back to Manchester before their trip to Stuttgart on Saturday in the final friendly before the big season opener against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns on August 10th.
The bookies such as Bet365 currently view City as second favourites to take the title back from Chelsea this season, with last year’s winners once again the preferred team with their odds at 6/4, and ours 11/4 to win the title.
It’s going to much harder this year too, with Manchester United being viewed as serious contenders once again, with odds of 5/1 for them – whilst Arsenal are the third favourite, currently at 9/2.
Reports are still easily found suggesting we are going to go all out to try and bring ex-Chelsea player Kevin De Bruyne to the club before the start of the new season.
The Telegraph has reported that an opening bid of £40 million will be tabled, but Wolfsburg are said to be holding out for a sum of £57 million.
Wolfsburg’s sporting director has come out and said they will "respect the interests of the player" but will not sell cheap:
“We are not a selling club, we don’t need the money," he said,
“And in the project of Wolfsburg we want to compete one day with Bayern Munich and you need these kind of players.
“But on the other hand we have to handle it seriously and respect the interests of the player and on the other side he has to respect the interests of the club."
Expect things to heat up now with regards to the transfer, and hopefully a deal can be done to bring De Bruyne to the club.