José Mourinho sacked: Manchester United to appoint caretaker manager – live reaction!

Gary Neville has entered Paul Pogba’s caption competition.

Chris from Gipsy Hill has been in touch to make the case for Laurent Blanc:

Laurent Blanc? He’s ex-United and admired within the club. He has big-job experience with PSG and France and he’s not currently working (though still presumably working through that €22m payout from PSG a couple of years ago). They even call him Le Président, which seems to me the perfect antidote after the football club equivalent of a toddler tantrum.

Here’s what Blanc made of the speculation when he was linked to the club in 2010:

Here are some of the contenders to take the job full-time. United fans, who do you want? Giggsy after the end of the season? As a side note, I didn’t know that Zidane and Pochettino are both 46.

Zinedine Zidane
The former Real Madrid manager has been heavily linked with United since leaving the Bernabéu in May. The 46-year-old made the rare journey from great player to great coach in under two-and-a-half years in charge of Real. In that time he became the first manager to win the European Cup in three consecutive seasons while playing an exciting brand of football.

Mauricio Pochettino
Tottenham manager Pochettino has been on United’s radar since he lunched with Ferguson at a Mayfair restaurant in 2016. Not winning any trophies has been the stick to beat 46-year-old Pochettino with during his time in north London. But the Argentinian plays bright, attacking football and was high on United’s list of targets to replace Louis van Gaal. Influential figures at Old Trafford are said to be big fans of Pochettino, who throughout his career has blooded young players in the United way. But prizing him away from Spurs chairman Daniel Levy would prove extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Didier Deschamps
United fans of a certain vintage will recall Deschamps being described by their former favourite Eric Cantona as a “water carrier” and a Juventus foe playing against Ferguson teams of the 1990s. The 49-year-old might not have been the most stylish of players, but his France team which won the 2018 World Cup had it in spades. Deschamps has club experience at Monaco, Juventus and Marseille, but could he be tempted away from the France national team where he has a contract until 2020?

Laurent Blanc
The former France international and manager has great pedigree with the club after spending his final two years as a player at Old Trafford. Blanc, a no-nonsense centre-back in his playing days, finished his career with a Premier League winners’ medal under Sir Alex Ferguson. He guided Bordeaux to an unlikely second-placed finish in his first season before claiming the Ligue 1 title the following year after setting a then competition record of 11 straight victories. Blanc became France manager in 2010 and lost to eventual 2012 World Cup winners Spain at the quarter-final stage before stepping down after the tournament. PSG followed, where he won 11 trophies in three seasons before he left in 2016. Blanc may have been out of the game for two years, but he demands an expansive brand of football which United fans are craving for.

Ryan Giggs
The Wales manager is among the greatest players ever to represent United, making a club-record 963 appearances between 1991 and 2014. He spent four games as United interim manager after David Moyes was sacked in 2014 and two years as Van Gaal’s assistant. The 44-year-old left United when Mourinho was appointed in 2016. Giggs would be a popular appointment with many fans keen to reconnect with its traditions. But questions would be asked whether he has enough experience to do the job, despite the bright start he has made with Wales.

Poor Squires.

In case you missed it on Sunday, this is how José Mourinho assessed the 3-1 defeat against Liverpool – his last game in charge of Manchester United:

“Caption this,” said Paul Pogba on Instagram this morning – a post he has now deleted.

Here’s what Gary Neville makes of the decision:

“The moment earlier on in the season where it was clear the board decided that they didn’t want to back a couple of José Mourinho’s signings, at that point you are finished as a manager. In the summer the club wanted to sign one or two centre-backs. Those centre-backs were identified and the club obviously have the ability and the right to say no to those signings if they don’t feel it’s right, but you have to understand the consequence. That once you undermine a manager or don’t agree with his signings and you’re going against them – maybe for the right reasons from a club point of view – but if you’re a manager, particularly of the sort of stature of José Mourinho, you’re on a collision course. What we’ve seen over the last three or four months is it play out in public.”

So, who should take over? In their statement, the club said: “A new caretaker manager will be appointed until the end of the current season, while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager.” Michael Carrick has taken charge of training today at Carrington but the club are expected to bring in a caretaker manager within the next 48 hours.

David Squires yesterday…

David Squires today…

What a way to go for Mourinho: after losing meekly to the club’s biggest rivals at Anfield. Liverpool had 36 shots in that game, dominated the ball throughout and only conceded due to a goalkeeping error. As Barney Ronay put it on Sunday afternoon: “This was beyond dire – dire squared, dire football played in dire fashion by a dire selection. Imagine a bad plan, enacted badly, by someone not very good at enacting bad plans. Imagine a negative approach, applied with extreme negativity by a group of players feeling negative about the actual merits of all this negativity. Why would anyone want to keep doing this?”

Manchester United have sacked José Mourinho following Sunday’s defeat at Liverpool, ending a tenure that began in May 2016.

A poor start to the Premier League season has seen United slip 19 points behind the leaders, Liverpool, and fall off the pace in the hunt for a top-four place. They have won only once in six league matches, drawing during that sequence with struggling Southampton and Crystal Palace.

The club issued a statement on Tuesday morning which read: “Manchester United announces that manager Jose Mourinho has left the club with immediate effect.

“The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future. A new caretaker manager will be appointed until the end of the current season, while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager.”