Manchester United MUTINY: Ed Woodward sacked Jose Mourinho over REBEL player threats

MANCHESTER UNITED sacked Jose Mourinho because they feared a squad mutiny against the manager.

Four players were ready to QUIT the club unless executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward wielded the axe.

It is understood Woodward was concerned a mass exodus would be triggered if he remained loyal to the floundering Mourinho.

The January transfer window is just a matter of days away and players could have begun turning to their agents before long.

On Tuesday Woodward finally buckled and, in the shadow of United’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool, sacked Mourinho.

Sunday’s 3-1 defeat at Liverpool that left Manchester United 19 points behind the Premier League leaders.

The latest revelation is a damning indictment of how bad things had become under Mourinho’s troubled regime.

Senior club sources have revealed the atmosphere around the camp became so toxic that several players were willing to find new clubs in the January transfer window.

Express Sport revealed in September how some serious cliques had developed in the Old Trafford dressing room. A large number of players lost faith in the tactics and training methods of Mourinho, who began to run out of allies.

Some senior stars were incensed at Mourinho’s treatment of Luke Shaw, Anthony Martial and Eric Bailly, while £52million summer signing Fred was left out in the cold.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has replaced Mourinho on an interim basis until the end of the season.

The first task facing the former United striker will be to unite the dressing room and create more harmony in the squad.

The Norwegian arrived at the club’s Carrington training base just before 8am yesterday to start his first day in the job.

He met with first-team coach Michael Carrick to discuss the squad and mood in the camp before taking training.

Solskjaer has vowed to bring attacking football back to the club and wants his side to play with pace out wide, a quality that helped make some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams successful and famous.

Ferguson has given his personal seal of approval to the board’s decision to appoint Solskjaer, who is poised to recall Paul Pogba to his starting line-up for tomorrow’s game at Cardiff.

Pogba was axed by Mourinho for the recent league games with Arsenal and Liverpool after his relationship with the Portuguese completely broke down.

But Solskjaer has told the French World Cup winner that he starts with a clean slate and is keen to restore him to the team.

United, meanwhile, have paid Molde £1.8m to loan Solskjaer until the end of the season but denied reports claiming a permanent compensation fee of about £7m has also been agreed.

Woodward has made Mauricio Pochettino his No1 target to replace Mourinho and is determined to lure him to Old Trafford before the start of next season.Source:www.express.co.uk