Manchester United might travel to South Africa again before the start of the 2007/08 English Premiership season, said Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund on Wednesday after returning from a visit to a number of leading English clubs during the Premier Soccer League’s mid-season holiday break.
He was accompanied by members of his technical staff.
”Sundowns have invited Manchester United to be our guests on their traditional pre-season warm-up tour,” said Igesund, ”and we would love to have them here for a couple of matches and to offer them full use for training purposes of the club’s headquarters at Chloorkop.”
But the coach said he had been misrepresented and misquoted on the club’s own website in a release that stated Manchester United would ”definitely come to South Africa during the off-season”.
”The truth of the matter,” he added, ”is that the invitation to United was made during a lengthy meeting we had with United’s manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and other top officials.
”But there is obviously nothing definite to the proposition at this stage and we can only hope that the Premiership log leaders were so impressed with South Africa when they came here last year to play in a pre-season tournament that they will jump at the opportunity of returning.”
Igesund pointed out that while the United team who played friendly games in the Vodacom Challenge against Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates were grossly depleted and contained only a handful of first-choice players because of World Cup commitments, a fully fledged squad could come to South Africa this year.
”And that would mean the inclusion of world-acclaimed stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and others,” he said.
But as Igesund himself admitted: ”It’s all in the melting pot at the moment.” — Sapa