Chelsea are set for a massive change to their standard pre-season tour as Todd Boehly and Co set about finalising plans for next term. Thomas Tuchel made his frustrations with last year's tour public and Graham Potter has already admitted that senior players felt the same.
"A lot of travelling, another time zone, a totally different feeling of temperature, high humidity, so very demanding for first training and the players are struggling with the heat," Tuchel told Chelsea's in-house media last summer.
"We give maybe more time and space to drink - more break - but we can't hide from the fact we're in pre-season and we have to, somehow, put kilometres into the legs. From this point, we don't adapt."
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Tuchel then went on to vent his frustrations after the team flopped in their performances, losing two of their three games across America including a damaging 4-0 defeat to Arsenal that prompted an outburst from the German coach. He was sacked less than six weeks later.
It was far from the ideal first pre-season under the new regime, though it was prepared and organised by Roman Abramovich's administration, and set the perfect example of how not to conduct a tour. "Speaking to a few of the experienced guys, they said it was the worst pre-season they've had," said Potter earlier this season.
"Organisationally, the tour didn't work as well as they'd like. I wasn't there so I can't say. We thought we made progress, but the first half against Southampton was below par. The sky can fall. These are some of the facts. Inconvenient facts, but that's the situation."
The change of structure for the end of this campaign leading into the next has now been confirmed by director of football operations Dave Barnard, who told the
"One thing is from a football perspective. We have to ensure that preparation for the Premier League is first then we bolt on all our commercial activity and everything around it to generate the name of Chelsea. We try to find the best training facilities and the NFL teams have the best facilities.”
Chelsea are believed to have a fixture against popular National League side - and current table toppers - Wrexham. The Wales-based outfit have grown in stature since being taken over by Hollywood stars Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. Manchester United are also set to face Wrexham and are potential opponents for the Blues too.
In a change to last season, where three separate camps were used across the country, including a final friendly in Italy against Udinese, Chelsea are planning on keeping to just one side of the USA. The Evening Standard report that a base in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania will see them prioritise the east coast.
Having been across all six time zones last season Chelsea are keen to avoid past mistakes but still want to take advantage of marketing and commercial opportunities presented by Christian Pulisic and the expensively assembled squad. Should they find themselves in Philadelphia then they would have the chance to work at the Eagles' NFL facilities and be within comfortable travelling distance from New York, Washington DC and Baltimore.
After the sheer level of turnover and disruption at the club in recent years, finding a level of stability starting with pre-season would be a good marker to put down ahead of the new season.
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