So it seems Manchester United are set to sign Nemanja Matic from Chelsea for £40 million.

It won’t be the first time Jose Mourinho has signed the midfielder, either.

The Portuguese boss signed the Serbian for Chelsea back in January 2014, bringing him back to the club he left two years previously.

Mourinho is clearly a big fan of Matic and you’d be forgiven for thinking that the United boss always wanted to be reunited with him this summer.

But that wasn’t exactly the case, it seems.

Matic was Mourinho's third-choice

That’s because the Telegraph are suggesting that Matic was actually Mourinho’s third choice midfield target this season.

The report claims that the Red Devils are having a frustrating summer and missed out on their top two midfield priorities - Tottenham’s Eric Dier and Roma’s Radja Nainggolan.

Ed Woodward has made very little progress with both players, meaning they had to settle for Matic.

The Chelsea midfielder is more available than Dier and Nainggolan, with the Blues set to sign fellow midfielder Tiemoue Bakayoko in the coming days.

While Chelsea aren’t too keen on selling Matic to their rivals, they will find it difficult to turn down a £40 million bid for a 28-year-old with just two years left on his current contract.

United will wait for Chelsea to secure Bakayoko before making a move for Matic - who is expected to earn around £150,000-per-week at the Theatre of Dreams.

A tough summer for Ed Woodward

But it must be a worry for Mourinho to have to settle for his third transfer target.

At the start of the summer, Mourinho explained how he would sit make and let chief Ed Woodward deal with securing deals with his transfer priorities.

“Ed Woodward has my list, what I want, what I would like for more than two months. So now it is up to him and the owners,” he said.

They have already missed out on Antoine Griezmann with the Frenchman deciding to remain at Atletico Madrid due to their transfer ban. While another Mourinho target, Romelu Lukaku, seemingly wants to rejoin Chelsea rather than move to United.

And after failing to strike a deal with Dier or Nainggolan, Mourinho probably isn’t too happy with how things have gone so far.

There’s still time, though, and deals with Alvaro Morata and Fabinho could be just around the corner.