After two weeks of international matches, the players gradually returned to Carrington.
The internationals who had played in Europe returned a little earlier, while those from South America did not arrive until the day before the match.
That was because Man City had arranged charter flights to ferry them back and forth. If they had flown on their own, it would have taken even longer.
That was the biggest problem caused by international matches.
There was really nothing much to say about the matches themselves. The main issue was the travel.
Some internationals even flew back and played a match without resting, then returned immediately after the game. Nearly all the players' exhaustion came from the long journeys.
On the afternoon of the day before the match, after training ended, Su Dong deliberately kept all the First Team players behind.
By then, staff from Mendes's company had already delivered the gifts Su Dong had carefully prepared for his teammates.
With Man City players' salaries, even the young First Team players belonged to the high-income class outside football. They did not really care about gifts. What mattered was who had given them and why.
This time, Su Dong had given everyone a new three-piece set from Apple: a phone, a tablet, and a laptop. All of them were the highest configurations and none were cheap. They were nothing special to some established stars, but to youngsters like Trippier, they were quite precious.
The main reason everyone valued them was that the gifts had come from Su Dong.
"Captain, the holiday isn't here yet. Why are you suddenly giving us gifts again?" David Luiz was a carefree man. After receiving his gift, he grinned from ear to ear and asked curiously.
Su Dong smiled and made no attempt to hide it. "I'm