I am really excited to be back on tour in the US. We love coming out here to see our fans as I know many of them are not able to travel over to England to see us play in the Premier League.

The tour is also a great building block for us as we prepare for the new season as we have five very competitive games and it is a chance to bring together everything we have been working on with the new head coach.

We are away with the new management team and the squad for more than two weeks so it is really helpful when it comes to building the team morale as you can get to know one another away from the pitch as well as on it, which is very important for the new players and the new head coach as he looks to implement his new playing style and learn the players’ different personalities, both on the pitch and off it.

These five games in the USA, the match with Inter Milan at Stamford Bridge and the training sessions help him show us the way he wants to play so we are ready for the first game of the season.

Having fun on tour is important but we are also working really hard in our training sessions, in the gym and putting the work in during team meetings to make sure we are ready.

Fans would have seen on the club channels that we are having fun and it is important that we do have that downtime to hang out with each other on a personal level and can get away from football a little bit as we build that connection as a squad. It helps massively when it comes to matchdays as it means you step on the pitch wanting to fight for each other.

I believe coming away on tour is the best environment for new signings or the academy players who are making the step up. You are with the other players and the staff 24/7 – training, eating meals and socialising away from football.

You come away from these two-week trips feeling like you know the new signings and academy players so much better than if we had just been training back in Cobham. I’m sure it will really help those players feel more comfortable by the time we get to the first match of the Premier League season.

We are really enjoying life under our new head coach Enzo Maresca. He is a really hands-on coach, which the players like. He is taking the sessions, he is leading the meetings and even at this early stage of pre-season, we are already really clear on what is expected of each of us in our respective positions.

His playing style is very energetic and hopefully, it will be fun for the fans to watch because it is really attacking and is a style which really suits our team with the personnel we have.

I can’t wait for today’s game against Wrexham. Playing matches in front of a stadium full of your fans is why you want to become a footballer in the first place. It is when all the hard work you have put in over the years and in training and team meetings really pays off and comes together.

We are all looking forward to today’s match; the players, the head coach and the fans. It will be an exciting evening and best of all, we have another four great games to come after this one. I can’t wait.