GONE! Jose Mourinho sacked by Manchester United

Manchester United have confirmed the departure of manager Jose Mourinho after the club’s stuttering run of form led to their worst-ever start to a Premier League season.

A statement from the club said: “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.

Mourinho’s relationship with key members of his playing squad appeared to have disintegrated this season, with a public training-ground face-off with Paul Pogba and club captain Antonio Valencia being forced to apologise for ‘liking’ an Instagram post calling for Mourinho to be sacked.

The former Porto, Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid manager had hoped to stay at United for 15 years, but he has lasted little more than two.

Mourinho leaves United in sixth place in the table and 19 points adrift of league leaders Liverpool.

The Portuguese’s final match in charge was a 3-1 loss against United’s arch rivals at Anfield on Sunday.

United’s next league fixture is away to Cardiff on Saturday evening.

External candidate to become caretaker manager

More developments from Old Trafford, our chief football correspondent, Jason Burt has the latest…

Neither Michael Carrick nor Nicky Butt will take charge of Manchester United to the end of the season following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.

It is understood that United will appoint an external candidate as their caretaker manager within the next 24-48 hours and he will be in the dug-out for Saturday’s match away to Cardiff City.

United will take the rest of the campaign to identify and hire their next manager with the clear remit of fitting into a long-term approach. The outstanding candidate is believed to be Tottenham Hotspur’s Mauricio Pochettino although he signed a new contract with the club earlier this year.

It is understood that neither Carrick, who has been working as Mourinho’s assistant, nor Butt are believed to have the necessary experience to take charge of United.

Man Utd have done the easy bit and sacked Mourinho, whose negativity has infected the whole playing side. The harder part is changing the club, which is a commercial deal-making factory gone wrong.

Gary Neville’s reaction: Seven years of poor decisions

Man Utd have been crawling along on their hands and knees for the last few months.

You could see on the pitch how (Jose’s) been impacting players, the sacking of Jose is a result of what happened in the summer and the manager not getting his transfer targets.

There have been seven years of poor recruitment and poor decisions.

The recruitment has been erratic.

They’ve had three failed managerial appointments.

They need a reset, in terms of recruitment and in terms of the football club and in terms of what they do next is the right move.

That’s about making sure the next manager is the right manager.

They have to make sure they put the right footballing structure in place.

The Telegraph