A sense of inevitability, but no particular joy, is how Manchester United fans in Malta met the news that manager José Mourinho had been sacked halfway through his third season.

José Mourinho is driven away from his hotel after leaving his job as Manchester United’s manager, in Manchester, England, yesterday. Photo: Reuters

The English club, which enjoys huge support in Malta, pulled the trigger on Tuesday after the Portuguese coach oversaw United’s worst start to a season in 28 years and days after a humiliating defeat to Liverpool on Sunday.

He leaves having won the FA Community Shield, the League Cup and the Uefa Europa League in his first season but amid discontent about his style of football and reports of clashes with the board and key players.

“The way things have been boiling up in the past months, the cards were on the table and the divorce was only being delayed,” Manchester United Supporters Club president Joseph Tedesco told the Times of Malta.

Mr Tedesco insisted Mr Mourinho could not be blamed for all the club’s woes, pointing to the struggles of his predecessors, David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, experienced managers who lasted just seven months and two years respectively, and the board’s increasing focus on commercial operations.

“Something is wrong, not just the manager,” he said. “Whether sacking Mr Mourinho was the right decision or not only time will tell. It could be in the short term but I don’t see this to be a long-term solution. Continuity cannot be sustained by sacking the manager every two years,” Mr Tedesco remarked.

Businessman Winston Zahra, a United supporter who is also chief executive of a hotel firm owned by former players Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville, echoed the sentiments. “Someone always takes the fall,” he said. “He’s not the main problem at the club but he’s the one carrying the blame. As difficult as it was given the results he was achieving, he needed more time and the support of the board: if Alex Ferguson had been starting out now, someone might well have made the same decision about him.”

Something is wrong, not just the manager

For ex-BBC journalist Mario Cacciattolo, it is also the board that criticism should be directed at.

“I think Mourinho wasn’t backed well enough. In the summertime, I looked at the squad and knew we’d struggle,” he said, pointing to the manager’s unsuccessful pursuits of reinforcements in attack and defence. “I think he hadn’t wanted to put out the squad he did, so United were always going to have a poor season.

Asked who he would like to see take over the top job – former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane, Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino and England’s World Cup hero Gareth Southgate are all said to be in the mix ‒ he plumped for the Tottenham manager. “He’s never won a trophy but he ticks all the boxes: he has faith in youth, he plays attacking football.”

Valletta 2018 chairman Jason Micallef, another ardent fan, lamented that the three managerial sackings in recent years was not the United way. “Mr Mourinho’s sacking and timing must be the worst of them all with a heavy and frantic Christmas football schedule, FA Cup and Champions League all to play for in the next two months.”