At the bottom of the winding path of the Montecastillo Hotel lie three Fifa-certified sized football pitches. Lightning is crackling in the distance and the swirling rain suggests it is monsoon season in southern Spain.
We leave the reception and clamber into golf carts bearing the Manchester United crest. The rain has subsided significantly but nobody is on the freeways of the course.
Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and the Spain national team have stayed at the five-star resort. Erik ten Hag plays golf at Mere in Cheshire but in Spain he is patrolling the slightly lusher greens of the football pitches.
Ten Hag is an active observer of United's pressing and counter-pressing drill, played in one half with two goals at either end. The specificity of Ten Hag's pressing demands is so minute he has clocked an acceptable pace of 27 kilometres per hour.
A drone flies overhead, 'piloted' by a local United have hired for their week in Cadiz. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Kieran McKenna insisted on incorporating drones into training sessions for additional analysis.
Kevin Keij, the performance analyst who followed Ten Hag from Ajax to United, is filming on scaffolding that doubles as a tactical vantage point. Including the three time-served kit men Alec Wylie, Ian Buckingham and Mark Ferendenus, there are close to two dozen staff present for the session.
An ambulance is parked behind one of the pitches and the interim doctor Jim Moxon is on the sidelines alongside the outgoing Steve McNally, who is easing the transitionary period.
The game starts in a corner cordoned off by cones, as one team attempts to retain possession for as long as possible until they are dispossessed. Then the ball is fizzed into 'open' play and a fast-paced game ensues.
United assistant manager Mitchell van der Gaag, carrying the whistle, watches from one side and Steve McClaren is on the other. "Be available," Ten Hag demands.
Due to the relentless rain, the wings are waterlogged, so the pitch is narrowed. Alejandro Garnacho, clad in running bottoms and a long-sleeved tracksuit top, is on the left and fatefully invited inside. He whips the ball into the top right-hand corner.
Garnacho is pitted against the physical Maxi Oyedele. David de Gea advises Oyedele to "show him outside". Oyedele obliges yet Garnacho rifles the ball high past De Gea at his near post. De Gea punches the assorted balls in frustration.
Right foot and left foot. Far post and near post. Those of us observing on the sidelines puff our cheeks at Garnacho's comprehensive finishing. If we were supporters we would applaud.
"Great finish," shouts technical director Darren Fletcher. "Donny - good," he adds. Van de Beek caught the eye when United trained the night before the Europa League final in Gdansk.
United players felt Van de Beek was deserving of more playing time under Solskjaer as he excelled so frequently in training and, on the evidence witnessed in Poland and Spain, Van de Beek is an influential performer on non-matchdays.
Anthony Martial's reading and intensity with the pressing allows him to dispossess a cornered Tom Heaton on the goal line and tap in. Ten Hag considers Martial to have all the attributes of a complete striker.
At the end of the drill, which is repeated at least five times in our presence, Ten Hag has a conflab with Martial, resting his hands on the Frenchman's shoulders and patting him on the back. Fletcher and Ten Hag have privately raved about the timing of Martial's pressing.
McClaren debriefs with Garnacho. McClaren is guarded around the media, doubtless still scarred from his ill-fated tenure as England coach. Garnacho, yet to conduct an English interview but becoming fluent in the language, is responsive.
De Gea has spent more than 11 years living in England and become so Anglicised he has a tendency to discuss the weather. "Like Manchester," he said of the chill in Melbourne and the rain in Perth during pre-season.
In his homeland, the clouds briefly disperse to let some rays of light illuminate the players. "The sun there," De Gea points, gesturing to the prone United photographer Ash Donelon, braving the muddy conditions for artistic shots.
United move on to two seven-a-side games, both played in the half of the pitch. The highly regarded coach Eric Ramsay oversees shooting practice with Nathan Bishop between the sticks. Joe Hugill is consistently accurate.
As the saturated players stroll off the pitch at the end of nearly a two-hour shift, eight players pose for a 'winning team' shot. De Gea, Van de Beek and Heaton offer "hello"s. Ten Hag soon sidles over, presses the flesh and announces he will join us for lunch.
One of the United staff members with over a decade's service describes it as the "best environment" he has known at the club. United are on course, if not the golf course.