A MANCHESTER United squad including Alejandro Garnacho were due to arrive in Malaysia on Monday for a friendly, less than 24 hours after finishing the club’s worst season since 1974.
United beat 10-man Aston Villa 2-0 on Sunday at Old Trafford but manager Ruben Amorim has a huge rebuilding task over the summer to revive the fortunes of one of the world’s biggest football clubs.
Amorim afterwards apologised to fans for the “disaster” of a campaign, which saw them finish 15th in the Premier League and beaten 1-0 by Spurs in last week’s Europa League final.
Hours after beating Villa, a 32-man squad including Argentine winger Garnacho jetted off for the red-eye flight to the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur and a match Wednesday against a Southeast Asian XI.
That is followed by a game on Friday in Hong Kong against the Chinese city’s representative team.
United hope the two post-season friendlies will bring in some much-needed revenue, although tickets were still available on Monday for both games.
The BBC reported that the trip will generate about $10 million (£7.8m) for the club.
The 20-year-old Garnacho was not involved against Villa and his United career looks over after he and his brother publicly criticised Amorim’s decision to drop him for the Europa League final.
Goalkeeper Andre Onana and England defender Luke Shaw were similarly on the plane to Asia despite also not featuring against Villa.
Defenders Leny Yoro and Noussair Mazraoui did not travel, United said, but most of the rest of the first-team squad is expected to feature.
Highs of 37 degrees Celsius (99 Fahrenheit) are forecast in Kuala Lumpur this week and thunderstorms predicted on the day of the game at the 84,000-capacity Bukit Jalil national stadium.
Thunderstorms and showers are also forecast this week in Hong Kong, where humidity will be close to 100 percent.
Friday’s match will take place at the 40,000-capacity Hong Kong Stadium.
In July 2013, then Sunderland manager Paolo Di Canio labelled the playing surface a “killer pitch” after heavy rain played havoc with the conditions.