Premier League big guns know there’s money to be spun in the farthest flung corners of the planet and, with each passing summer, their determination to visit each of them seems to grow.
But does the extent to which they are willing to travel in pursuit of greenbacks have any impact on their performances once the competitive action gets underway?
The last three seasons suggest it doesn’t matter how many passport stamps your club collects, so long as the wins flow on the field.
Chelsea’s 2014/15 title-winning preparation was a trip around Europe to rival that of the keenest inter-railer fresh out of university – a staggering six countries in 19 days.
No fellow ‘big-six’ rival had clocked up fewer miles than their 4,367 across the two pre-seasons preceding this but, more importantly, no one recorded as many points (working on the premise such things were awarded for positive results in non-competitive clashes) as their 22 either.
The greenhouse gas emissions from the west Londoners’ private plane can’t compare to the T-Rex-sized carbon footprint Liverpool left following their globetrotting excursion to get in shape for 2013/14 though.
Brendan Rodgers’ rampant Reds set the tone for the season ahead on their 21,992 mile journey, scoring a bucketful of goals and plundering the equivalent of 21 points on a spectacular sojourn that saw terra firma graced in Indonesia, Thailand and Australia among other destinations.
Much of the following campaign was spent mounting an unexpected and only narrowly averted title-assault.
