Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to unleash almost 40 million pounds of new talent when Manchester United begin their pre-season tour of Asia in Tokyo on Monday. Two years after their last visit to the region, United return as English Premiership champions for a four-game tour that will see them play to full houses in Tokyo, Seoul, Macau and Guangzhou over the next two weeks.
And the club's huge army of fans in Asia will be the first to glimpse new arrivals Owen Hargreaves and Nani in a United shirt. But there is no match in Kuala Lumpur after United bowed to pressure from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and called it off as it clashed with the ongoing Asian Cup.
Unknown to the Red Devils, the Football Association of Malaysia had signed an agreement with the AFC not to host any other games while it was acting as a co-host of the regional soccer showpiece.
While United will show off Hargreaves and Nani, Brazilian midfielder Anderson, a 19 million pound buy from Porto, will miss the tour due to his involvement in the Copa America. United are also without Argentinian forward Carlos Tevez as they attempt to finalise his transfer from West Ham early this week.
But England midfielder Hargreaves, who cost 17 million pounds from Bayern Munich, and 17.3 million pound Portuguese winger Nani join the likes of Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ryan Giggs in a star-studded squad.
Hargreaves ended a 12-month wait to sign for United when he arrived from Bayern last month. The 26-year-old Canada-born midfielder has been likened to Roy Keane for his all-action style and boss Ferguson admits that he will be a crucial addition to the Old Trafford squad.
"I don't think we were looking to have a Roy Keane-type player, but certainly some of the qualities that Owen has are different to the ones we have at the moment," he said.
"The question is always there about how do you replace great players? We said the same when Bryan Robson left and we got Paul Ince and then Roy Keane. "Although they were different types of players there were some similarities and Owen has some of those as well.
"He will bring speed in midfield and good energy, but what is really important is that he has European experience which a not a lot of our players have. "His arrival, and that of Nani and Anderson, gives us a really strong squad next year.
"Maybe that was our downfall when we got into the final part of last season. We just didn't have enough in the squad to handle all the competitions we were in." Rio Ferdinand says it is not just the fans who are looking forward to seeing Nani and Hargreaves in action. The players are keen too.
"We're looking forward to seeing them play as well," he told reporters. "All the players here are the same, we want to see them play. "Obviously we know more about Owen than Nani and Anderson. I've not really seen either of them play. Anderson hasn't joined up with us yet, but when he does, as with Nani, we'll be keen to see what he can do."
United kick-off their tour when they face Urawa Red Diamonds in Saitama on Tuesday evening before jetting to Seoul to face FC Seoul on Friday night, sadly without their injured South Korean midfielder Park Ji-Sung. From Korea, United move on to Macau for a clash against Shenzhen FC in Macau Stadium on July 23 before wrapping up the tour with a game against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical four days later.
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