The Blues spent 17 days in the United States and played five pre-season fixtures. It was a positive and promising start to life under the Argentine: a Premier League Summer Series triumph with two wins and a draw across the tournament.

A friendly draw with Borussia Dortmund followed those three matches against English opposition and Pochettino alluded to how that game could be our last pre-season fixture.

‘We prepare and we will think after the tour about what is the best for the squad. On Friday and Saturday, we will have training sessions. Then, on Sunday and Monday we are off. We start again on Tuesday morning,’ he confirmed.

‘This is more scientific than perception, but I think most importantly it is about how we are working with the staff and how the players will be impacted by the tour like tiredness because we play every three days.

‘The players are sleeping in a different beds every three days, different pillows, different food. Sometimes we think players are machines, but they are not and they of course suffer because of changes, different pitches to train, many important details that are so important.’

We host Liverpool in our 2023/24 curtain raiser on 13 August. Pochettino says it is too big a risk to arrange a friendly before then.

‘What we have to talk about and analyse is not to play at the weekend as it is a big risk for the health of the players and to give some rest because I think they need that after nearly 20 days.

‘Of course, the start of the week is so clear so we must start to focus on Liverpool. That is the pre-season we found when we arrived and nothing to say wrong or complain,’ he added.

‘It is only that we need to be clever how we adapt to provide the players the best tools to arrive against Liverpool in the best condition: physically, mentally and tactically also.’