Too many friendlies?

We've already had the end of season jaunt to the States. City have just announced they will play Arsenal in Finland in August. That means pre season friendlies in South Africa, Hong Kong, Germany and Finland.

I guess that not all players will be going to every destination, but that does seem to be an awful lot of pre season travelling and matches. Maybe it's just down to money.

Look at the places we're playing in:

USA and China are to sell us as a club to the two most lucrative markets in the world right now. Big merchandise bucks there.

South Africa isn't as wealthy, but it's still an untapped market for us.

Germany is probably more about finding out how they are becoming a new force in European football.

Finland, I don't know what that's all about, maybe the saunas?

The match will gross a few million Euros (cheapest tickets are €29 in a 40,000 seater stadium and there will be some tv money and sponsorships etc.) so I can see us walking off with a cool €1M from that match against Arsenal.

We could earn ourselves up to £10M from all these ventures. I can't see any other reason for it as it'll help the FFP pot.

It's also a massive jolly for the lads. You know the score, new country, posh hotels, nice food, top notch facilities, a bit of bonding over a few beers... Look how they all came back after the 2011 junket, they totally dominated early on and looked like a team in our league winning season.

That, plus the money