Former Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson says their preseason tour will benefit Jose Mourinho's players.

United will kick off the summer tour with five games in the United States - two friendlies against Major League Soccer sides LA Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, before International Champions Cup (ICC) meetings with City and the two giant clubs from Spain.

After returning from America, the Reds will play further matches in Oslo against Norwegian side Valerenga and in Dublin where Italian club Sampdoria will provide the opposition at the start of August. All of the games will be shown live on MUTV.

"The great thing about United is you've got to accept the challenge of beating the best," the former manager told ManUtd.com at the tour launch.

"The expectation is always there and the matches we'll face in the ICC are all big ones. It's very good for the younger players to come into this type of competition in terms of preparing to be a Manchester United player. The more intense the challenge they can get, the better prepared they will be when facing Manchester City in an important league match or Real Madrid or Barcelona in Europe.

"The preparation to play in games as big as that can be started in pre-season tournaments like the ICC, which is fantastic."