Premier League: Manchester United sack Jose Mourinho

Manchester United have sacked Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho on Tuesday, the boss leaves the club after two and a half years in charge. Mourinho took over in May 2016 and led the Red Devils to success in the League Cup and the Europa League, but failed to mount a serious title challenge. This season is even worse as Manchester United are 19 points behind league leaders Liverpool, who defeated them 3-1 in the derby on Sunday. The club spent around 400 million pounds on 11 new players under Jose Mourinho, but the team failed to improve both the result and the level of play. Manchester United will have to pay Mourinho around 18 million pounds for terminating his contract before its expiry, but they decided to spend this money in order to improve the long-term future of the club. The new manager will work under a director of football, who will report directly to vice-chairman Ed Woodward. The club issued a statement saying: "A caretaker-manager will be appointed until the end of the season while the club conducts a thorough recruitment process for a new, full-time manager. The club would like to thank Jose for his work during his time at Manchester United and to wish him success in the future." Assistant manager Michael Carrick and academy boss Nicky Butt are not in contention for the caretaker manager position, Manchester United are set to appoint somebody from outside the club. The Red Devils collected just 26 points in the Premier League this season, their worst tally after 17 matches since the 1990-91 season. Moreover, they have won just one of their last six matches in the Premier League. However, they have qualified for the first knockout round of the Champions League, where they will face Paris Saint-Germain. This season was full of controversies for the Portuguese boss, culminating with the falling out with star midfielder Paul Pogba, an unused substitute in the derby match against Liverpool last week. Laurent Blanc is currently 6/4 at SkyBet to become the next Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is 2/1 and Zinedine Zidane is 4/1 to get the job.