Inside Man United’s unusual pre-season: Why they’ve abandoned a ‘showpiece’ tour and the USA is off limits, the Helsinki curtain-raiser involving Wes Brown and five-star luxury Irish hotel

Last summer, Manchester United completed their pre-season tour of the United States against Everton at the futuristic Atlanta Stadium, with Argentina putting an end to England’s World Cup dreams on Wednesday night.

This was United’s third consecutive year touring America; The decision was credited to their £300 million shirt sponsorship with California-based technology firm Snapdragon and their choice to train in the United States, where facilities are best-in-class and players can enjoy relative freedom compared to, for example, a more heated reception in the Far East.

The United stars were able to go shopping on Rodeo Drive without much interference when they stayed at the SLS Beverly Hills two years ago, and last summer they were regularly spotted in the upscale shops and cafes around Chicago’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Sir Alex Ferguson loved United’s relatively low profile in the US and Jose Mourinho was particularly fond of Los Angeles, but Louis van Gaal was furious at the commercial demands placed on his players.

Flashy tours with big teams in big stadiums (more than 109,000 people watched United play Real Madrid in Michigan in 2009) keep sponsors happy and are also hugely lucrative.

United are understood to have earned £7.5 million from the Premier League Summer Series against Bournemouth, West Ham and Everton a year ago. The club is said to have made a similar figure from its post-season tours to Malaysia and Hong Kong a few months ago. If plans had been made to visit Saudi Arabia in the middle of last season, United would have expected to earn around £5 million per game.

Bruno Fernandes arrives in Chicago ahead of United’s US extravaganza in 2025

So the tours are more than pre-season preparations, they are about engaging with a global fan base that has taken United to the USA on many occasions, as well as the Far East, South Africa and Australia.

The club has often added a friendly in Scandinavia and even Scotland in recent years. Typically at least one match is also played at Old Trafford, but the ground is still being prepared after being torn apart for the first time in 14 years and will not be ready until the first home game of the season against Ipswich on 30 August.

But instead of touring this summer, United have decided to spend the entire pre-season in Europe, starting with Saturday’s game against Wrexham in Helsinki.

They will then face Rosenborg in Trondheim a week on Friday, Atletico Madrid in Stockholm on Saturday, August 1, and Paris Saint-Germain in Gothenburg on Saturday, August 8.

Michael Carrick and his players will fly in the day before the matches and leave immediately afterwards, except for the clash against Leeds at Croke Park in Dublin on Wednesday 12 August, which will form part of a week-long training camp in Ireland.

United will then complete their pre-season schedule against AC Milan in Wroclaw on Saturday 15 August, before kicking off the 2026-27 season with a lunchtime start at newly promoted Hull City a week later.

So why have the Premier League’s biggest club gone from globetrotters to day trippers this summer?

The main reason for this is the World Cup. Like most big clubs, United had a number of stars at the tournament in North America, each of whom is contractually entitled to up to four weeks off after the World Cup ends. For Kobbie Mainoo, Marcus Rashford and Lisandro Martinez, that won’t happen until this weekend. Bruno Fernandes, Matheus Cunha, Amad Diallo, Senne Lammens, Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui are already on the beach.

United’s new transfer Andrey Santos is expected to be included in the large squad that will face Wrexham at the 36,000 capacity Olympic Stadium in Helsinki on Saturday.

David Beckham and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer on United’s 2001 tour of Southeast Asia – United’s US fans felt shortchanged when Beckham was sold before the 2003 tour.

New signings Andrey Santos and Karl Darlow are expected to be included in a large squad to face Wrexham at the 36,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, while Youri Tielemans will not report for pre-season for several weeks after playing for Belgium amid a surprising return of World Cup players.

First-team regulars such as Harry Maguire, Mason Mount, Luke Shaw, Bryan Mbeumo, Benjamin Sesko, Joshua Zirkzee, Leny Yoro, Ayden Heaven and Patrick Dorgu have been back in training for a week and will play in Finland, but the absence of many of their stars has left United feeling they were better off taking a different approach this summer.

Fans want to see the biggest names. American fans felt little changed when United sold David Beckham to Real Madrid weeks before their US tour in 2003, and a year later Ferguson was forced to sign Paul Scholes, the Neville brothers and Mikael Silvestre, who were rested after Euro 2004, where the quality of United’s squad was criticized following a goalless draw with Bayern Munich in Chicago.

Another World Cup factor influencing United’s decision not to tour America specifically was the feeling that the US ‘football’ market would be saturated, with tickets selling at high prices after nearly six weeks of continuous matches being played across the country. It would be difficult to persuade fans to pay again for friendlies featuring a weakened United team.

Their Premier League rivals had other ideas. He is heading to America to play in Liverpool, Nashville, New York and Chicago. Manchester City goes to Hong Kong and South Korea, Tottenham goes to New Zealand and Australia, Chelsea goes to Australia, Hong Kong and Indonesia.

United’s schedule still offers some major attractions. After all, they face European champions Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico and the Milan team managed by their former head coach Ruben Amorim.

It’s unclear how much money they will make from their six games, or how much they could lose by not touring, but it feels like a football-first decision to give Carrick and the players he has available the best opportunity to prepare for a season that sees United return to the Champions League.

United won’t be in Sweden even a week between games against Stockholm and Gothenburg. Their only training camp away from Carrington will be in Dublin, with United returning to Carton House in Maynooth, where they spent a few days during the 24-day gap in the fixture list in March.

Harry Maguire, who has returned to pre-season training for a week, is expected to take part in Helsinki.

The facilities were so well prepared that Gaelic football team Armagh had been forced to abandon camp when they arrived a few days earlier as the pitches had been designated for United.

The club has also planned ahead for Helsinki and will take over the city’s official World Cup fan zone at Musiikkitalo Square on Friday and Saturday. Entry is free and there will be competitions and raffles, as well as a Q&A session with former United defender Wes Brown. More fans will also gather at Bierhaus Kamppi.

On Friday United will host a coaching clinic with local grassroots team PPJ, comprising 40 young players aged between 7 and 11, who will be given match tickets to see Carrick’s side start a very different pre-season.