If the much-vaunted stars who flopped at Euro 2004 failed to produce their best for their country when it mattered, they have perhaps only got their clubs to blame.

　　For Italy, Spain, Germany and England, Euro 2004 has proved once again that the most glamorous leagues often fail to produce success in a national team competition.

　　The excuse that players are exhausted after a long club season is not new, but it is a theory gathering pace in this tournament.

　　Players point to 40 games in the league, as many as 10 more in cup competitions and the finalists in last season's European Champions League final played 13 games in that competition.

　　Clubs, however, add to the burden on players.

　　The problem is money: pre-season tours to Asia and the United States are a lucrative sideline which help fire the interest in new TV markets and open up new avenues for merchandising.

　　And so, exactly three weeks after the curtain comes down on Euro 2004 on Sunday, English Premiership giants Manchester United will begin a three-game, six-day tour of the United States, beginning with a game against Bayern Munich in Chicago.

　　Also involved are Liverpool - with or without their England internationals Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen - who are due to play Scottish champions Celtic in Connecticut on July 26, European champions FC Porto four days later in Toronto and then AS Roma in New York on August 3.

　　English Premiership clubs have to rush to even fit in a handful of pre-season games - the new season kicks off on August 14.

　　Is it any coincidence that the quartet of Real Madrid superstars - Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Raul and David Beckham - have under-performed in Portugal following a season which begin with their club making a stamina-sapping tour of Asia?

　　Zidane even voiced his belief that the matches in Thailand, Hong Kong and Japan, all organized to capitalize on the signing of Beckham, were a factor behind Real's capitulation at the end of a season which ended without a trophy.

　　This year, Real have scaled down their pre-season trips to a mini tour of Japan from July 27 to August 1 because the Spanish giants have to face the humiliation of having to qualify for the Champions League in August.

　　Real's internationals must report for training on July 12.

　　It appears a common misconception that the world's top clubs have a finely tuned fitness programme tailored to the individual needs of their players.

　　In fact, Beckham has complained since England's elimination that conditioning work at Real tailed off at the end of the season as the hunt for trophies was called off.

　　"I don't think we've done as much conditioning work at Real Madrid as we used to do at Manchester United," he said.

　　"I didn't feel as fit in the second half of the season as I did in the first half."

　　Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a coach and a player, called for domestic league programmes to be reduced.

　　"The best-known players came to the Euro already tired because of the length and the intensity of their championships," Beckenbauer told O Jogo newspaper at the weekend.

　　"Players have to play so many games both for club and country and it can mount up to a maximum of around 80 matches."

　　The tiredness theory bears even more weight when one looks at the ages of players who have shone. Wayne Rooney is 18, Cristiano Ronaldo 19, Arjen Robben is 20 and 22-year-old Milan Baros leads all scorers after the Czech Republic's 3-0 victory over Denmark.