MANCHESTER CITY’S troubled tour of Asia has clearly not been the preparation for a title defence Pep Guardiola dreamed of.
The champions have another long journey today, travelling 1,800 miles further east to play in Japan on Saturday.
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And it has been a difficult trip right from the start with their outbound flight grounded twice at the start.
Their late arrival meant schedules had to be changed and commercial events moved, while players struggled with sleep in the early days.
Less than 24 hours after finally touching down in Shanghai, China, they were on the move again to Nanjing for their first fixture.
As they left, they were subjected to reports from the Chinese media the club had failed to embrace the country during their five-day stay.
Then they arrived here in sweltering Hong Kong amid political protests on the streets — which also spilled over into their friendly here last night.
But as he aims for a third-successive Premier League title, boss Guardiola insisted City will not use all the stress as an excuse if their new campaign gets off to a bad start next month.
He said: “It’s not good. I would have preferred another way but it is what it is. We were delayed and we could not fly but then we trained in Manchester and that was good for everybody.
‘ALWAYS WE TRAVEL’
“With situations I can’t control I adapt. We know we have to be here so we do as best as possible.
“Always we travel and not always perfect conditions and the players deal with it.
“It’s nice to be here, we did incredibly well — and the players did incredibly off the pitch too.”
Tours to the Far East are rarely straightforward but Guardiola has largely managed to keep his cool.
He strongly denied the suggestions his team had not cared about the Chinese fans and promised the club will be back soon.
And he said last night he will not allow any excuses from his players about pre-season if they do not start the campaign in the right way in a fortnight.
They have added another several hours of travel time by arranging a friendly against their sister club Yokohoma Antlers at the weekend which seems a puzzling decision.
It means the squad will be feeling the effects of a gruelling tour when they arrive back in Manchester on Sunday.
And they will have to get over their jet-lag quickly as that will be just a week before the Community Shield against Liverpool at Wembley.
But Guardiola said: “We learn from great athletes and we learn many, many times from them they never complain.
“When they lose they congratulate the opponent.
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“We are not going to play the Community Shield or go to West Ham for our first league game and say what a disaster about the training or the humidity.”
To add to a complicated pre-season Guardiola is still without six players — including main strikers Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus.
Five of them were on Copa America duty in the summer while Algerian forward Riyad Mahrez has only just finished at the Africa Cup of Nations.
City eased to a 6-1 victory at the Hong Kong Stadium against Kitchee FC on Wednesday night amid a backdrop of more protests from the stands.
There have also been angry scenes in the streets this week — although Guardiola said his players have not been affected by the trouble..
He said: “Sometimes this kind of thing happens in society but we were quite well, we moved from Hong Kong and the players had a day off and nothing happened.
“The game was normal. Hopefully they will solve it.
“It was a nice test. We played well.
“Really well in the moment with the starting XI and the guys who came in.
“There were tough conditions with humidity but we tried to shuffle because we have just one test before the Community Shield and start of the Premier League.
“No injuries, that was good. On Thursday we are recovering and go to Toyko.”
