Fergie to show off new Devils

TOKYO: Sir Alex Ferguson is ready to unleash almost £40mil 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.

While United will show off Hargreaves and Nani, Brazilian midfielder Anderson, a £19mil 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 £17mil from Bayern Munich, and £17.3mil 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 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.”

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. From Korea, United move on to Macau for a clash against Shenzhen FC on July 23 before wrapping up the tour with a game against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical four days later