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Chelsea poised to re-sign Nemanja Matic for £21m in time for Manchester United clash

Chelsea expect to complete the £21million signing of Benfica midfielder Nemanja Matic in time for him to make his second debut for the club on Sunday against Manchester United.

 As Standard Sport revealed last week, Chelsea had to wait until after Benfica’s match against Porto yesterday for  negotiations to be finalised.

 Matic has already set his sights on a return to Stamford Bridge and is likely to travel to London tomorrow to complete the deal.

 Chelsea have made buying a defensive midfielder one of their  priorities and decided to try to re-sign the Serbia international months ago.

 Matic originally joined the club from MSK Kosice for just £1.5m in 2009 and made only three substitute appearances before being sold to Benfica two years later as part of the £25m deal which saw David Luiz go the other way.

 His value then had risen to £4m but such has been Matic’s development at Benfica that Chelsea are prepared to hand the Portuguese giants a significant profit to get him back.

 The 25-year-old has a £37m buy-out clause in his contract but Benfica’s  need for funds to ease their financial problems will see them sell at a lower price.

 Chelsea are able to afford the fee, despite reporting annual losses  of £49.4m last month, as they are on the verge of concluding the sale of Kevin de Bruyne to Wolfsburg for an initial £17m.

 De Bruyne, who has made just nine appearances for the first team since joining from Genk for £7m in 2012, has already agreed terms on a five-and-a-half year contract.

 It is believed Chelsea are still negotiating over a series of performance-related add-ons, which could take the eventual price closer to £20m.

 Mourinho hopes Matic will be able to play a major part in Chelsea’s bid to win the Premier League title, although he will be cup-tied for the Champions League.

 Earlier this month, Mourinho confirmed he was an admirer of the midfielder, saying: “Matic is a good player. Currently he looks solid and is wise and stable. He is a player that looks very mature on the pitch.”

 So far this season the manager has been choosing between Frank Lampard, Ramires, John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien and Luiz to occupy the two positions in front of the back four but he has not been entirely satisfied.

 He still sees Brazilian Luiz as a central defender, while Lampard is in the latter stages of his career and cannot play every game.

 Essien, who has made just nine appearances this term, is no longer the force he was after suffering three serious knee injuries and the club are prepared to let him leave this month
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