As ever, a trip to Asia brought its own difficulties. Preseason tours to Asia are nothing new and nor is the controversy surrounding them.

Manchester City arrived in Hong Kong having failed to win their first trophy of the season, the Premier League Asia trophy. The media wanted to talk about the Hong Kong protests and City’s apparent “arrogance” during their China visit, something pointed out by Xinhua.

Pep Guardiola dismissed the latter out of hand at the pre-match press conference.

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It’s not the first time that City have had problems on a China tour.

In 2016, the club were meant to play the first Manchester derby outside England but that did not go to plan.

Torrential rain in Beijing made the pitch at the National Stadium was deemed unplayable, a vital preseason game cancelled.

Guardiola’s opposite number at the time was Jose Mourinho. The Portuguese made it clear he would rather not tour Asia, but understood the commercial opportunities. Notably he insisted that the club toured the US in 2017.

His predecessor, Louis van Gaal, had argued that the 2016 tour be cut from two weeks to eight days. “I was involved in every step of the planning, the club wanted to go for a fortnight but I got it down to eight days, which is more like six days,” he said that April before being sacked the following month.

“I have played as a player in a tournament in Shanghai and we could not train,” Van Gaal said. “It is only because of the commercial reasons that we are going. I know a club like Manchester United must do that, but it is not a very good preparation.”

Preseason is all about preparation, but the best laid plans often go awry.

The otherwise well-oiled Manchester City machine rolled into Shanghai two days late and then had to jam their commercial commitments into a reduced time.

What exactly is the point of these visits?

PSG launched a new kit in Shenzhen, and City did the same in Shanghai, so if it is about shirt sales then the number of new PSG shirts in Macau and Shenzhen is a success of sorts, the same for Inter in Macau and Manchester City in Hong Kong.

If the point is to build a fan base, then it can be improved. Stadiums were half full in Macau and at Hong Kong Stadium and the 60,000 seats in Shenzhen were around a third full. This could have been down to exorbitant ticket prices – upwards of US$186 for PSG v Inter.

The clubs are paid and the promoter has to make the money, but is it better to fill out for less per ticket?

Then again, the point is for club’s to please partners and drive commercial expansion.

When Guardiola praised his players, he mentioned they fulfilled every commercial obligation.

Neymar was available for every commercial opportunity. That will have paid off. Many fans at the Shenzhen Universiade Stadium were turned around watching the Brazilian watching the game rather than watching the game themselves.

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It’s all too easy to get an Asia tour wrong. Cristiano Ronaldo and his Juventus teammates arrived in Seoul late after their flight was delayed in Nanjing, they kept fans waiting for an hour for their game against the K-League All-Stars.

Juventus may have scored the biggest own goal of the summer in South Korea, but more will follow them to Asia and in undoing good will in an instant.

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Ronaldo did not even do anything outright offensive like Chelsea’s Kenedy or several Leicester City players did in recent preseasons.

Missing stars is a problem at this point of the summer. Barcelona were missing Leo Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho in Japan – the South Americans still resting after their Copa America exploits. It has been the same with players who were at the African Cup of Nations.

Maybe the answer to all of this is that these should be postseason rather than preseason visits.

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It worked for Spurs the other season and it would alleviate the concerns over the heat and humidity if not pollution. It would also mean star players available and even willing to play.

An end of season holiday would also mean the need to fulfil commercial commitments would not have to be balanced with preparations for the coming season.

“We are going to come back to China when the club decides to come,” said Guardiola in Hong Kong. “Sooner or later we will come back.”

Without a rethink, so will the same old Asia tour troubles.