As English clubs continually explore ways to make more money and expand their global brands, it seems that fans are made to suffer.

It is the local fans who live walking distance from the stadium, who travel up and down the country week-in week-out to support their team for 40 games in the season who are losing out.

And if a supporter does want to travel to watch pre-season friendlies, gone are the days where a club would invite a few of the smaller local clubs to their home pitch for a game or travel to a European country and play a few friendlies.

Teams are going to the other side of the world, playing one match in one city before jetting off again to another city or sometimes a whole other country. 

Do clubs think fans are made of money, considering how much they charge for season tickets and a brand new kit every year which looks exactly the same as the last one?

The likes of Manchester United, West Ham and Newcastle are touring the globe to play friendlies in front of thousands of fans in sold-out stadiums. 

I understand that the move to play pre-season friendlies abroad is to give the international fans the chance to see the team they support play but realistically, the bigger appeal is the expanding of the club name and it is seen as a way to shift more shirts to those fans.

It is why Chevrolet and Adidas have paid record sums to have their logo on the front of Manchester United’s kit, so when they do go on these tours to Asia and the US, fans will see their companies being associated with one of the biggest clubs in the world. 

And while the sales for the latest shirt soar across the planet, the rest of us are made to watch the games from home with matches often starting at 2 or 3am. 

It’s not like people have school and work to go to in the morning.

United played their first friendly last week, with the game kicking off at 4.06am on MUTV, which fans have to subscribe to.

So not only is the game on at a ridiculous time for viewers back at home, you have to pay £6 a month if you want to watch the game.

It wouldn’t be so bad if during the regular season the channel showed the live games that Sky and BT Sport are not able show, but it doesn’t. 

The channel advertises showing “full matches, including all Premier League games,” but those games are shown at midnight, again at a time not suitable for kids who weren’t able to go to Old Trafford to watch the game.

I use United as an example but they are not the only club which deprives their fans of seeing them during the summer.

When clubs do play pre-season games in the country, they are often away from home and are often labelled as a “club XI,” which means under-21s 1and fringe players, with the odd first-team player chucked in for a quick run-out.

The side is then managed by the reserve team boss so fans don’t even get to see an Arsene Wenger or Brendan Rodgers.

Credit to Arsenal, they did take Aaron Ramsey, Kieran Gibbs and Wenger to Boreham Wood a few weeks ago and West Ham, Liverpool and Southampton to among others have played a few friendlies in the country before jetting off to continue their preparation for the new season abroad.

While some people may question who actually watches pre-season friendlies, it is often the first chance supporters get to see new players and managers. 

And it would be nice if we were able to see it while sitting in a stadium at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, rather than 2am on a Tuesday morning, in our front rooms with work in a few hours, on a channel we signed up to just to watch four games a year.

Louis van Gaal complained about United’s tour schedule, saying that it is too taxing on the players having to travel 13,500 miles in the space of two weeks — on private jets and free of charge — may I remind him.

He should spare a thought for any fan who is lucky enough to have the money and holiday time to follow the club — a very small few — when the club continually show their disregard to the average fan.