UNITED’S CHINA VISIT

MANCHESTER United are considering a lucrative trip to China next summer. United’s visit to America this month was designed specifically to cater for the low-key demands of manager Louis van Gaal but this time next year he will have to be more flexible as United are almost certain to return to Asia with key sponsors Chevrolet and AON eager to visit China. Chevrolet pay in the region of £50million a year to United while AON contribute just under half of that. But the companies believe there is limited benefit in visits to America as both are well established there. The club have done their share of public and commercial engagements out here this time but the 71 activities paled rather when set against the 184 they carried out on their trip to America last summer. With Van Gaal upset at the hectic schedule he inherited then, this trip has seen United spend most of their time at a training camp in San Jose. It has suited the players but promoters were disappointed that United chose not to go anywhere near the venue for the Barcelona friendly in Santa Clara until match-day. Here in Chicago, United only arrived at 10pm local time on Tuesday, less than a day before their proposed 8pm kick-off against Paris Saint-Germain at Soldier Field. Van Gaal, who has arranged one final behind-closeddoors friendly back in England before his team’s Premier League opener against Tottenham, said: ‘When you see the amount of people in front of our hotel only for a minute to see the players, I try to give autographs, but it is not always possible to do that because we have a very strict schedule of training, meeting, eating, sleeping.’