'Long tours not helping'

New Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has bemoaned the club's lengthy pre-season tour to the United States and said it is not helping preparations for the English domestic campaign.

“More or less, yes,” Van Gaal told British media in the United States, when asked whether the demands were hindering his work. “We have to prepare the season and when you have commercial activities and dreadful distances, having to fly a lot and the jet lag, it is not very positive.”