Nemanja Matic appears poised to leave Chelsea and sign for Manchester United, where he will again play for Jose Mourinho, his former manager at Stamford Bridge.

Given Mourinho has now coached in four major European leagues, signing over a hundred players across his near 20-year career, he has worked with the same professionals at different clubs.

Here, we look at how the men reunited with Mourinho have fared.

Juan Mata

(Martin Rickett/PA)

When Mourinho returned to Chelsea in 2013, the club’s reigning two-time player of the year was Spanish pass-master Mata. However, the diminutive Real Madrid product found himself on the bench for most of Mourinho’s first months back in London and eyebrows were raised when he was sold to United in January 2014. Mata did not let his head drop and excelled in the two-and-a-half campaigns that preceded Mourinho’s arrival in Manchester. Although used more sparingly in 2016/17, he scored six Premier League goals and was United’s stand-in captain when Wayne Rooney was dropped last October.

Romelu Lukaku

(Nick Potts/PA)

With Matic seemingly on his way, Mourinho has already landed a former employee this summer. United forked out a reported £74million to sign the man Mourinho sold to Everton for a relatively modest £28million when in charge of Chelsea. The Blues won the race to capture the highly-rated Belgian youngster from Anderlecht in 2011 but Mourinho seemed happy enough to leave him in the reserves, loaning him out to West Brom and then Everton before the discontented striker made the move to Goodison permanent three years ago. Lukaku has clearly impressed Mourinho in the meantime and after an impressive pre-season, Red Devils fans are eager to see the imposing hitman make his competitive debut in the coming weeks.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

(Andrew Matthews/PA)

Mourinho was lucky enough to inherit the charismatic Sweden striker when he took the reins at Inter Milan in June 2008. Ibrahimovic was already a huge success at San Siro, scoring 17 league goals to claim the Serie A Golden Boot before Mourinho arrived, and in their one season together he bagged 25 in another title-winning campaign. He left for Barcelona before Mourinho landed the treble in 2009/10, though. When Ibrahimovic became available following four prolific years at Paris St Germain, the chance to work with Mourinho again appealed and he was quick to pledge his services to the United cause. In a single term at Old Trafford, he rolled back the years to win two trophies before injury laid him low.

Samuel Eto’o

(Adam Davy/PA)

The Cameroonian was perhaps the most lethal component of Mourinho’s treble-winning team at Inter but he was past his best by the time he arrived at Chelsea from Anzhi Makhachkala in August 2013. Eto’o did score a memorable hat-trick against United on his first league start of 2014 but he did not set the English top flight alight as his Portuguese boss might have anticipated.

Ricardo Carvalho

(Nick Potts/PA)

Classy centre-back Carvalho was unknown outside Portugal until he helped Mourinho’s Porto sweep to Champions League glory in 2004. Along with Paulo Ferreira, Carvalho followed Mourinho to Stamford Bridge that summer and made an impressive start in England, winning the championship and the League Cup at the first time of asking. He persevered at Chelsea after Mourinho’s initial departure, only leaving for Real Madrid in 2010.