Manchester United and Real Madrid have become embroiled in a bitter row over their pre-season tours of the USA, writes David McDonnell in Los Angeles.
United and Real are both based at the UCLA campus here in Tinseltown, and have clashed over training pitches, hotels and the facilities available to both squads.
The ill-feeling between the two clubs got so bad that organisers of the International Champions Cup, the pre-season tournament, in which both are taking part, had to step in and calm things down.
And it has also emerged Real may have made fresh overtures towards United goalkeeper David de Gea, a long-term target of theirs, which will cause further friction between the two warring clubs.
United and Real are training daily on adjacent pitches at UCLA, but Jose Mourinho’s men arrived on Sunday, ahead of their Spanish rivals, and were able to claim the impressive Drake Stadium.
That has left Real training on an adjacent pitch — which has left the current European and La Liga champions, who arrived in town on Tuesday, less than impressed.
The clubs also clashed over the hotels where they will be based, with both said to have wanted to stay at the famous Beverly Wilshire hotel on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
United also bagged the Montage Hotel, while Real were forced to move a mile away to the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Organisers of the ICC said the row began in the build-up to both clubs landing in the US and had escalated upon their arrival, with the two sets of players and staff now having to face each other every day on the UCLA campus.
The two sides meet at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, near San Francisco, on July 23, after which United head to Washington DC to face Barcelona, while Real return to LA for their fixture with Manchester City.
They will then play again this pre-season in the UEFA Super Cup on August 8.
There has been little love lost between United and Real down the years, with Sir Alex Ferguson famously once claiming he “wouldn’t sell that mob a virus” ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo’s 2009 switch between the two clubs.
United angered Real recently after pulling the plug on a deal for their striker Alvaro Morata, after weeks of protracted negotiations, when they managed to bag Everton striker Romelu Lukaku in a £75million deal.
That incensed Real, who were convinced Morata was United’s only feasible option in terms of signing a striker, with the Spanish giants now in a position where they could find it difficult to offload him.
And the De Gea saga, which refuses to go away, may surface again, after sources close to both clubs claimed Real have begun to make advances towards United’s No.1 keeper in a fresh attempt to lure him this summer.
De Gea’s move to Real collapsed on transfer deadline day in the summer of 2015, following a paperwork glitch, after both clubs had agreed to the deal, with Madrid keeper Keylor Navas going the other way.
Although De Gea subsequently signed a new deal, he has remained a target for Real, who could be ready to exact revenge for United walking away from the Morata deal by making a bid in the region of £50million for the keeper.