Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Laurent Blanc in the frame for Man Utd job

Manchester United have sacked Jose Mourinho, something that might have cost them £24 million in compensation, and now head bozo Ed Woodward is thinking about a couple of underwhelming options as his replacement.

The first name that was mentioned this morning was former France, PSG and Bordeaux manager Laurent Blanc, who spent a couple of years at United after Jaap Stam was sold to Lazio, months before he was found to be doping.

He has done acceptably in his jobs so far, but was involved in a scandal over the quotas given to BAME players in the French Football Federation setup. For that reason, if he’s not able to properly address the scandal, he probably shouldn’t be given the job. If he were, then he would probably cheer most of the squad up by virtue of not being Mourinho, and dawdle along for six months in exchange for £3 million.

The other, and now more likely, name is Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer. He’s done OK at Molde in both instances, and won’t need to be back to Norway until the season starts in 2019 for a fair while, so he might not even have to give up his old job before he’s sacked at Old Trafford and sent back on his way.

At Cardiff, he did very poorly in difficult circumstances, but given his relative lack of clout, you would imagine that is what Woodward likes. Giving him the job is a favour, and can be repaid if Solskjaer doesn’t ask for anything in the transfer market, takes the money, and keeps his head down.

Michael Phelan is suggested as assistant manager, and Patrice Evra has been mentioned too. Does this mean anything positive for the club in the short or long term? Of course not, it’s going to be the same old rubbish.