Manchester United will once again use the UCLA campus in Los Angeles as their base for pre-season in the summer starting on July 16.

Jose Mourinho was extremely critical of Man United’s pre-season preparations in 2016, during which they travelled China and saw their friendly with Manchester City in Beijing called off due to a waterlogged pitch.

Their preparations for the 2017/18 campaign, however, went remarkably smoothly with the superb facilities at the UCLA and played a role in United’s strong start to the season.

United will begin their preparations on July 16, a day after the World Cup final in Moscow, and some players are likely to miss out if their respective countries go beyond the last 16 phase in Russia.

“We are extremely excited to host once again,” a UCLA source said.

“It will be interesting how many players will be involved in the World Cup who may not make the trip due to their success – but we will be ready.”

Mourinho has always favoured using the UCLA campus for his pre-season plans and took Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan prior to visiting Los Angeles once again last summer.

The Californian humidity and state of the art facilities, along with the fact that the local population – mainly interested in being beautiful rather than the beautiful game itself – won’t bother the players makes it an ideal place to engender team spirit and lay the foundations for the long months ahead.