Manchester United players visit Google Headquarters

Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata and a few of his team mates took time out to visit the headquarters of online search engine, Google in San Francisco.

United are currently on a pre-season tour of the states but thought to learn more about the online company.

The Spanish midfielder shared via Instagram, "Thanks for an inspiring afternoon, @google. #dreambig"

United d will play French side Paris Saint Gernan on Saturday in another game as they prepare for the new seaons.

Rogers believes events in the Premier League will shock Van Gaal

 Manchester United can be said to have had an impressive Pre-season run recording five wins in all five matches under new manager Loius Van Gaal but Liverpool boss Brendan Rogers has a feeling that the United gaffer will find the league proper shocking.

Van Gaal had a success story with the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich but Rogers insists that the competitive nature of the Premier League makes it different from other climes.

"I think what he'll find is the competition in this league will be different to any other league that he's worked in," the Northern Irishman told several national newspapers.

"In a lot of the other leagues, there are one or two teams and those are the teams that are expected to win.

"This is a league where the top team plays the bottom team and on any given day you can lose. You don't get that a lot in the other leagues. I think the competition will probably take him by [surprise], and that's from foreign managers I have spoken to over the years."

Despite the fierce rivalry between the two clubs, Rodgers also spoke of his admiration for Van Gaal and what he has achieved.

"I've obviously an admirer of his work and his career," he added.

"He's a very experienced manager and a very good manager who has worked at some big clubs.

"When you come through as a coach, you look at the guys who have a vision and a philosophy, and he was obviously one of those guys."

''I will return 100 percent fit'' - Neymar

Barcelona forward, Neymar has revealed that he will be joining the rest of the team in no time as he continues to recover from the injury that ended his world cup.

Report on the club website says that the 22-year-old expects to be back in action soon, having initially been expected to miss four to six weeks after suffering the injury on July 4.

Neymar Jr is in Japan taking part in a series of promotional events. Talking to the Japanese media, he was very optimistic about his physical shape at the start of his preseason:  ''I am recovering from the injury day by day. I’ll be coming back to Barcelona 100%  fit"

Neymar Jr will return to work with FC Barcelona on the 5 August, and he expects to be fit enough to play in the Joan Gamper Trophy match. 

"I want to have a really good season and I'm looking forward to helping my teammates to get some good results.''

Iheanacho scores in City's 4-1 Pre-season win over Sporting Kansas City

Nigerian youngster Kelechi Icheanacho scored for Manchester City on his debut for the first team against Sporting Kansas City in a pre-season friendly on Wednesday in the United State.

Iheanacho who has been training with City over the past few weeks, stroked home the fourth on full-time from a Jesus Navas assist to complete the 4-1 rout of the MLS side.

Midfielder Bruno Zuculini, struck the ball home from 20 yards out to give the Kansas City keeper no chance but the hosts equalised later in the half when CJ Sapong settle the scores.

City regained the lead on half-time when Dedryck Boyata headed home Jesus Navas' superb cross and the Blues kicked on again after the break. 

Though Sporting KC could have drawn level a couple of times only to be denied by a mixture of poor finishing and good goal-keeping by Willy Caballero, it was City who turned the screw with two more goals in the closing stages. First Sinclair was brought down in the box and Aleks Kolarov buried the penalty kick to make it 3-1 and before Iheanacho capped an impressive debut.

 

Courtesy Visit: Beckham storms United Camp in Los Angeles

Louis van Gaal and his Manchester United players had a special visit from a familiar face at their hotel Los Angeles where the team is camped for pre-season.

According to the club website, the Reds legend David Beckham, who is on holiday in his adopted home, popped to the team hotel to see the United manager and some of this former team-mates, including assistant boss Ryan Giggs.

Beckham will have a vested interest in United's Tour 2014 match, presented by Aon, when van Gaal's men take on his other former team LA Galaxy.

The two teams will meet at the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night when the Reds kick off their tour campaign. Further matches will follow against AS Roma, Inter Milan and Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup.

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Mourinho dreams big, claims Chelsea want to dominate the Premier League for the next decade

Manager of Chelsea football club Jose Mourinho has been looking ahead to the coming season and, in particular, the two major competitions.

Speaking in a conference room at the team's hotel in Velden, Austria, the Portuguese talked about his hopes for our Premier League and Champions League campaigns acknowledging the competitive nature of the top flight in England, but said he is confident his side can wrestle the title from Manchester City’s grasp.

‘If I didn’t think that way I would go home and let somebody else take charge of the team,’ said the Chelsea manager. ‘People can speak about other leagues but England is the only country where five or six teams can win the title. Football is about competitiveness every weekend and that only happens in the Premier League.

‘When you have the two Manchester clubs, the three clubs from London – Tottenham, Arsenal and ourselves – plus Liverpool, that’s six top teams, where all of them can win the title. That’s why everybody loves the Premier League.

‘At Chelsea, if we didn’t think we could win the league, or didn’t think we had the quality to do it, we wouldn’t be here working so hard. We respect our opponents and their ambitions, because they have the same ambitions as us, but we want to win the Premier League and we are ready for that.’

Last season’s Champions League campaign ultimately ended in disappointment when we were beaten at the semi-final stage by Atletico Madrid.

The Blues boss, however, believes our run to the last four will serve us well this time around.

‘Last year we reached the semi-finals and it was a transitional season,’ he said. ‘A team which has been a winning team for ten seasons is changing step by step, we’ve bought new players and we are trying to build for the next decade. We had a very young team at the time but, even so, we reached the semi-finals and were playing to win the competition.

‘This season we think we are going to be stronger, the younger players are more experienced, they are stable and better adapted to fighting for titles. You look around, to Spain, Germany and elsewhere in England, teams are getting stronger, spending big amounts of money and trying to sign the best possible players.

‘We will go to the Champions League group stage with one objective: to qualify. When you reach the last 16 let’s see what happens.’