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Fergie ready to unleash new talent

Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to unleash almost ?40 million (US$81.3 million) of new talent when Manchester United begin their pre-season tour of Asia in Tokyo today.

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 buy from Porto, will miss the tour because of his involvement in the Copa America.

United are also without Argentinian forward Carlos Tevez as they attempt to finalize his transfer from West Ham early this week.

But midfielder Hargreaves, who cost ?17 million from Bayern Munich, and ?17.3 million Portuguese winger Nani joins 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 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.

"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," he said.

"His arrival, and that of Nani and Anderson, gives us a really strong squad next year," Ferguson said. "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."

United kick-off their tour when they face Urawa Red Diamonds in Saitama tomorrow evening before jetting to South Korea to face FC Seoul on Friday night, without their injured South Korean midfielder Park Ji-sung.

From Seoul, 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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