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Tottenham Hotspur made a major splash with their arrival and first day of training in South Korea as you would expect for a team with one of the country's biggest stars welcoming his team-mates to his homeland.
Just a glimpse of Son Heung-min walking through Incheon International Airport's Terminal 2 arrivals area sent the awaiting fans into a frenzy. The sight of him then greeting his team-mates with a 'Welcome to Seoul' sign was the perfect touch and the faces of Antonio Conte and the players when they saw him as the arrival doors opened was one of genuine delight.
Spurs chairman Daniel Levy was the first man through to greet Son, followed by Conte, who gave him a warm embrace before a group of players who mostly make up the Tottenham's squad's senior stars and leadership group, followed. Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Ben Davies and Davinson Sanchez all hugged Son before posing for a photo with him and the country's flag, the towering Sanchez finding himself stuck slightly awkwardly on the end with his arm around the less towering Levy.
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If you thought the hundreds of screaming fans were only there to see their compatriot Son, you would be wrong. There were some eye-catching and amusing highlights among the signs and shirts being brandished among the crowd, including an Oliver Skipp Norwich City top from the young midfielder's loan spell there, Kane and Dejan Kulusevski shirts and signs that ranged from 'Cuti? Cutie' to greet Cristian Romero to 'We will win trophies for the 2022-23 season'.
Behind the main group as they walked through was Tottenham's managing director of football Fabio Paratici, a man normally glued to his phone for business, but even he was filming everything on it for his own posterity. The pre-season tours always bring out passionate Spurs fans but to see the affection in Korea and to understand a slice of what life is like for a superstar like Son here was something special and this was only their first steps into the country.
The remainder of the players came through after Son and the first group had been ushered to the team's very modern coaches to take them into the city. New signing Richarlison and the rest poured through afterwards to more cheers and another summer arrival, Ivan Perisic, spent plenty of time signing Spurs and Croatia shirts before Tottenham staff eventually had to politely usher him towards the coaches that were waiting to leave.
Some players missed out on the flight from Heathrow. The perennially unlucky Joe Rodon through illness, discovered on the day of departure, and Tottenham's latest signing Clement Lenglet arrived at the club too late to receive a visa and will remain training at Hotspur Way this week.
He will be alongside Giovani Lo Celso, Tanguy Ndombele, Sergio Reguilon and Harry Winks, who will continue their pre-season preparations at the Enfield-based training ground as the club expects them to move on this summer. Alfie Devine and Dane Scarlett were given further time off following their recent triumph at the UEFA European Under-19 Championships.
The Covid testing rules remain firmly in place in Korea, with negative tests not only required before arrival but also again, within 72 hours of landing in the country, so Conte will be hoping that he does not lose any players to isolation during this week as he has plenty of gruelling sessions planned around the matches against the K-League XI and Sevilla.
Spare a thought for those excited young players who only found out late on that they were about to embark on one of the biggest experiences of their brief careers so far. Conte wanted to inform the younger players late in the process in order to keep them on their toes during training at Hotspur Way.
Summer tours normally have plenty of young players involved but with the large first team squad Spurs have right now and the lack of absent internationals, there were less spare seats on the plane.
Harvey White, 20, is a relatively old hand now with tour experience and having been part of the first team squad throughout last season under Conte. Troy Parrott and Malachi Fagan-Walcott, also both 20, have made their Tottenham debuts in recent seasons and Parrott experienced an Asian tour in 2019 when the club played in Singapore and Shanghai, but teenagers Charlie Sayers and Josh Keeley have certainly been thrust into the experience.
Sayers only turned 18 in March and joined Spurs for an undisclosed fee in December after breaking into the first team at National League side Southend United. The teenager can play as a centre-back or left-back and was drafted into the tour squad at the weekend as a late replacement for Rodon.
Nineteen-year-old Keeley is even more of newcomer, having arrived this summer from St Patrick's Athletic and now the Republic of Ireland U19 keeper will train with Hugo Lloris, fellow newcomer Fraser Forster and Brandon Austin in Korea this week, with goalkeeping coach Marco Savorani.
Nineteen-year-old Papar Matar Sarr is also getting his first experience of Spurs life, having joined last summer from Metz but remained at the Ligue 1 club on loan for the season. The Senegalese teenager will be adapting to life with his new team, but with his basic grasp of English will be leaning on the likes of Lloris and Ryan Sessegnon, who speaks fluent French, to help him along.
Tottenham's double training sessions will be held every morning and evening and the players had barely stepped off of their long flight before they were whisked away to the Goyang Stadium, north of the airport. The logic was that if they got straight out and started training and then slept well that evening then jet lag - with Korea eight hours ahead of UK time - might be less of an issue.
It didn't work for everyone of course. Ryan Mason was using the hotel gym at 4.20am as his body struggled to adjust to the big leap in time zones.
The training session in Goyang had been undertaken in the sweltering heat of the country right now. It's monsoon season in South Korea and that means temperatures of 34 degrees most days but also the possibility of heavy rain at any moment. The furnace-like heat is similar to Spurs' 2019 tour destination of Shanghai with the humidity high.
With that in mind some of the players utilised sleeveless training tops inside the multi-purpose stadium, which has an athletics track around its pitch. It was the home of K League side Goyang Zaicro for three years and has also hosted Son and the national team in the past.
Sunday's session took the form of a split between stretching drills, fitness work and then small-sided games with small nets. All of the new signings who had travelled were involved in some capacity, with Yves Bissouma, Forster and Richarlison taking part in both the fitness and ball work and Perisic just the fitness work as he continues to recover from the calf injury suffered in his last game for Inter in May.
Paratici could be seen watching on and talking individually with various players such as Son and Kulusevski, who he knows well after bringing him to Juventus in the past.
The training was behind closed doors, although some fans were waiting in the car park as the players arrived, and the team were set to train again on both Monday morning - while the UK slept - and then Monday evening, the latter in front of 6,000 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium, where Wednesday's match will be played.
Seoul is a fascinating place, a clash of very modern and traditional life, and this reporter's first evening in the city brought a simple jet-lagged stroll yet sights aplenty, not only in the architecture but also in the image of Son, so prominent in advertising around the capital.
My first day ended by getting into the spirit of the country as well as the Spurs theme. Korean football journalist Sungmo Lee took me to eat Cheolpan Dak-galbi, the speciality food from Sonny's hometown of Chuncheon. For those wondering, it's a slightly spiced chicken and it tastes wonderful, ours coming in two forms, with and without a cheese topping, with the rice cooked on the table in front of you.
We've only had a taste of Seoul so far, as have the Tottenham Hotspur players, but it looks set to be an experience to remember for all concerned.
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