Jose Mourinho wants to bring his former Chelsea player Nemanja Matic to Manchester United this summer, club sources have told ESPN FC, as the Portuguese now prioritises bolstering the club's midfield after signing centre-half Eric Bailly from Villarreal.
Mourinho feels it is essential to bring in a commanding and physically imposing midfield figure, along with a fast winger, a striker and probably another defender as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is expected to sign in the next few weeks.
The sources revealed that the new United manager feels Matic is close to an ideal option, although he also retains an interest in Paul Pogba of Juventus. Mourinho has spoken to the United hierarchy about investigating the possibility of signing the 23-year-old star, although it is seen as a difficult purchase to pull off.
Aside from Pogba's high valuation of well above £60m, due to the fact he would effectively fix a club's midfield for a decade, there would likely be competition from both Real Madrid and Barcelona if there were any sign Juventus are willing to sell.
Mourinho is consequently pursuing Matic at the same time, and the feeling is Chelsea may be willing to sell in order to fund Antonio Conte's restructuring of the team, with the new team possibly not even having a place for Matic.
United also maintain an interest in Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann, and sources say that Mourinho is willing to sell Juan Mata, Ander Herrera and Marcos Rojo in order to fund further purchases.