Mourinho Gearing Up For Tour Trip

Jose Mourinho says he is looking forward to his first taste of life on the road with Manchester United for Tour 2016, presented by Aon, and believes it will be an important experience for both him and his players - on and off the pitch.

The Reds boss will take his squad to China next week for two matches in the International Champions Cup against Borussia Dortmund (22 July) and Manchester City (25 July), both of which are live on MUTV.

The trip will provide the new manager with an opportunity to properly get to know his players and, while there will be some faces missing due to recent Euro 2016 commitments, Mourinho says the tour will provide a good opportunity for some team bonding and important training.

"I hope to see a group, from an emotional point of view, coming together and getting to know each other better and understanding each other better. It’s important from a football point of view, but also from a human qualities point of view, that’s very important," he explained in an interview for adidas' Front Row.

"The fact that we won’t travel with every player, from a tactical point of view, breaks a little bit the objective of a pre-season tour, but that’s the way it is. We cannot make miracles and the players cannot go directly from the Euros to pre-season. They need their break and we need them for the next 10 months.

"It will be a bit strange, especially for a new manager that needs to know the players and to work with the players, but I think the pre-season tours are also for the club dimension, the club projection and club connection which, in this case, is the Asian market, commercially and for the fan-base, it’s a lot about that.

"From that perspective, I expect a group that understands the dimension of this club and understands what Man United fans around in the world, in this case Asia, are expecting from us."

Mourinho has witnessed the passion of football fans in Asia previously and even visited a United-themed outlet on one trip.

"I’ve been to Asia with three different clubs and I know that the fans are completely in love, first of all, with football and, after that, with people. They target individuals and, if the person moves from club to club, they will always follow. For example, Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] will have his own fan-base that now become Man United fans too," he added.

"I understood also what Man United means to supporters there when I visited. I was in Bangkok and one of my Asian friends took me to a Man United restaurant where the supporters gather together. I had to wear a different jacket because I was the manager of another club at the time! [Smiles] At the restaurant, the fans gather together every weekend to watch United play and it was easy to understand how big the club is there."

Credit: Manutd.com