Ted Lasso, Taylor Swift and how Man City and Man United are ready to wage war in crucial US battle

While the current season has plenty left to run and the fate of all the major honours domestically and in Europe have yet to be determined, clubs already have one eye on next season.

This coming summer will see a host of Premier League clubs head across the Atlantic to the United States for their pre-season tours, with Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Liverpool among those expected to be making the trip.

There is nothing new in clubs heading across to America to try and grow their brands. United were one of the first to do so, and in being early adopters of the pre-season tour and tapping into the benefits that it can bring, they have been able to grow a huge global brand, one that has managed to endure even in a decade where success on the pitch has been in relatively short supply.

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Tours in Asia and Australia have also been enormously popular for the biggest clubs, who have been able to leverage the global power of the Premier League to draw in new legions of fans that they can market to, as well as bring on board a plethora of new commercial opportunities.

This summer feels different, though. There is a lot at stake for all the clubs in the US at present.

For many years the US was seen as the toughest nut to crack. A nation that already got its sports fix from the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, seemingly had little time for ‘soccer’, a sport that isn’t part of American sporting tradition, that doesn’t have deep-rooted social connections in the communities in which they reside.

In Europe, football is king. It