After the sprawling mass and relentless hustle and bustle of Bangkok, Liverpool’s Far East tour has taken a more sedate turn.
The Reds landed at Singapore Changi Airport late Wednesday afternoon without the fanfare that had greeted them in Thailand and continued throughout the majority of their stay in the country.
That there wasn’t quite the same level of excitement among the locals at Jurgen Klopp and his squad arriving in town perhaps says more about the comparatively laidback nature of the place rather than any great indifference at Liverpool being in town.
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Indeed, when the ECHO was getting ready to fly out of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport a few hours before the team departed, the gaggle of youngsters gathered around the entrance to the arrivals hall were far more occupied by the imminent sight of someone other than the Reds.
The smart money was on it being Jackson Wang, the Hong Kong-born Chinese singer and member of boy bad Got7 (full disclosure, this information was cribbed from Wikipedia) who had wowed the crowd – well, the females under the age of 18 at least – with his pre-match performance at the Rajamangala Stadium the previous night ahead of Liverpool’s 4-0 friendly defeat to Manchester United.
Mr Wang stuck around for the presentation of the Bangkok Century Cup to United, and was even polite enough to remove a piece of confetti from the bald pate of Old Trafford boss Erik ten Hag, an intervention that soon went viral. Liverpool, meanwhile, were already turning their attention to the next leg of the tour here in Singapore.
The hard yards continued with the Reds training on Wednesday at the Kallang Football Hub as they were put through their paces in an evening session, Diogo Jota among those taking full part having been the only senior player in the travelling squad not to have featured against United as he continued his recovery from a hamstring issue suffered on international duty in the summer.
At the same time, across town at the Vivocity Amphitheatre, former Liverpool players Sami Hyypia, Luis Garcia, Vladimir Smicer, Jose Enrique and Jason McAteer joined singer-songwriter Jamie Webster and members of The Anfield Wrap in a fan event attended by several hundred delighted supporters.
The Reds will continue ramping up their preparations for Friday’s friendly against Crystal Palace with an open training session on Thursday evening, which is likely to be attended by several hundred fortunate fans.
A number of tickets are still available for the game at the 55,000-capacity Singapore National Stadium, although the majority have been snapped up with Liverpool overwhelmingly the favoured side.
At least those turning up are unlikely to have to deal with the traffic chaos that again gripped Bangkok on Tuesday, the taxi taking the ECHO the seven miles to the match giving up after two hours while still more than a mile from the ground.
Having declined the offer of a ride on an infamous motorcycle taxi – the kind that would give Health and Safety officials nightmares – the rest of the journey was covered on foot. Difficult to envisage Klopp and the boys rocking up in such a fashion...
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