Manchester United have splashed heavily this summer to bring Victor Lindelof and Romelu Lukaku to Old Trafford, whilst a move for Inter Milan winger Ivan Perisic is in the pipeline. However, it seems fans shouldn’t expect too much more business.

Mourinho stated he wanted four new additions before the start of the summer but is ready to reduce his request to three new names, as he admitted the summer has been ‘difficult’ thus far, and the Portuguese boss also dropped a further hint that Zlatan Ibrahimovic will return to the club following his injury.

Speaking in America ahead of a pre-season clash with Manchester City, Mourinho revealed what his transfer plans will involve for the final six weeks of the summer transfer window and it seems the majority of his work behind the scenes is complete.

“The problem is we have four players [Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ashley Young, Luke Shaw and Marcos Rojo] that cannot play football now. Not even training. So it looks like our group is big but it is not because they can’t even train and the time for their recovery is really long.”

“Look at Marcos, no chance before December as an example, so our squad is not so big. Everybody knows because I told, very objective, I would like four players, I asked for four players.”

“And I’m ready to go from four to three because the market is difficult, some clubs think the market is different from others. We are not a club that is not ready to buy and buy and buy non-stop, we are not a club that is ready to pay what the clubs want us to pay so I’m ready to go from four to three.”

“And maybe three gives us a better balance for the squad and the team, and better conditions to compete.”

The fourth signing Manchester United were believed to be chasing was a defensive minded midfielder, having eyed Tottenham’s Eric Dier and Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic, but Spurs are insistent they will not sell the England international, whilst Chelsea don’t want to do a deal with the Red Devils following the collapse in their pursuit for Lukaku.

United’s priority heading into the summer window will have been to secure a defensive partner for Eric Bailly and a top-class striker to replace Ibrahimovic, both of which have been completed, and the potential addition of Ivan Perisic would give them a more natural wide-man.