Manchester United touched down in Tokyo on the first stage of their Asian tour Monday.

With a fanatical fanbase in the region, United are making their third pre-season tour of Asia since the turn of the millennium.

The Premiership champions have spent in excess of 50 million pounds on new signings since the end of last season.

Argentina striker Carlos Tevez is expected to join them from West Ham before the new season begins next month.

The team arrived in Tokyo without the injured quartet of Park Ji-sung, Gary Neville, Louis Saha and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who all had surgery earlier this year.

Ferguson expects Neville to rejoin the squad after their two-week Asian tour, Solskjaer soon after that and Saha in early to mid-August.

Park is not expected to be fit until the second half of the season, but will join the squad for their match against FC Seoul in the South Korean capital on Friday.

The four-match tour concludes against Chinese sides Shenzhen FC on July 23 and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical FC on July 27.

Image: (left to right) Sir Bobby Charlton, Karl Fowler, Kraken Sport & Media UK Limited CEO, Darren Fletcher and Mikael Silvestre of Manchester United pose with the Manchester United's Opus book during a press conference on July 16, 2007 in Tokyo, Japan [Images]. The book will be available from July 16 in Japan.

Photograph: Junko Kimura/Getty Images