Manchester United’s players made the most of an afternoon off in Los Angeles to visit pop star Robbie Williams on Tuesday.

United had a workout at UCLA in the morning before Harry Maguire, Scott McTominay, Jonny Evans and Tom Heaton headed over to Williams’ place.

It’s understood that Maguire is a personal friend of Port Vale fan Williams and organised the visit.

Toure’s tip for Amad

Yaya Toure may be a Manchester City legend, but he was happy to give Ivory Coast compatriot and Manchester United winger Amad some secrets to his success when the two met on holiday in the Maldives this summer.

Amad isn’t saying what Toure told him, but the United youngster teased that we must wait until the end of the season to see if it has worked.

‘Yaya Toure is a big legend in my country,’ said Amad at United’s training base at UCLA. ‘This summer I met him on holiday and he gave me some advice – some secret.’

What was it? ‘It’s a secret,’ replied Amad coyly. ‘He said something is good for me. He is a good guy. Yaya Toure scored a lot of goals with City. Meeting him on holiday and talking with him was very important for me. He gave me some advice for the future. Let’s see what happens at the end of the season.’

Meanwhile, Amad has been working with another Manchester legend, Ruud van Nistelrooy, in Los Angeles after the ex-United striker returned to Old Trafford as an assistant to Erik ten Hag.

‘He’s trying to get us to score more goals,’ said the 22-year-old former Atalanta player. ‘If we want to win something this season we need to score a lot of goals. That is why he makes training. I’m happy to do that with Ruud and the manager.’

Utd running LA-te again

Erik ten Hag apologised for being late to his press conference before Saturday’s game against Arsenal, and Amad was also an hour behind schedule on Tuesday when he spoke ahead of the second tour game against Real Betis.

Training at UCLA overran so the Ivory Coast winger needed more time to get ready before facing the media in Los Angeles. It was just as well because the sponsors’ board also turned up late at the press conference, so at least Amad wasn’t on camera talking against a blank wall.

That would have been a rather awkward situation for United given that the tour is being hosted by new shirt sponsors Snapdragon and the game against Betis is being played at the Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego.

It wasn’t just the media in LA who were kept waiting for an hour either. A number of journalists in San Diego were dialling in to the press conference on Zoom.

Rashford’s puzzler

He may have incurred the wrath of manager Erik ten Hag for going nightclubbing on a couple of occasions last season, but Marcus Rashford says he likes nothing more than staying home with a good jigsaw puzzle.

‘More so when I’m in season, doing puzzles and just little games to keep myself activated,’ Rashford said in a break from training at UCLA. ‘Most of them were just a thousand pieces. I’ve got a couple at home that are waiting for me, so I will get started on them when I get back.

‘I’ve tried a 3D one. It’s hard though, it takes longer – plus, if my dog interrupts and starts eating pieces, I’m going to get more frustrated! I think it was a car. Like I said, it was hard. I almost gave up but my mum said if I don’t finish it then I’ve been beaten, so I had to finish it after about three weeks!’

Cole goes green in San Diego

The advertising slogan for United’s tour is ‘Rivals in Red’ as they face Arsenal and Liverpool in the US, but the second fixture against Real Betis in San Diego in the early hours of Thursday morning has been dubbed ‘The Greenest Game’.

A joint collaboration between United, Betis, San Diego River Park Foundation, Sports San Diego, San Diego FC and San Diego Wave FC to promote sustainability in soccer saw a joint clean-up at the Mission Valley ecological preserve along the San Diego River on Tuesday.

Former United striker Andy Cole joined 65 volunteers working on the riverbed who collectively removed just over 500 pounds of rubbish from the preserve.